The Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Maharashtra, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has decided to ban home isolation of Covid-19 patients in at least 18 most affected districts of the state. The historic blunder of a move that this is, could easily translate into a nationwide third Covid-19 wave, merely days after India has started recovering from the destruction left behind by the second wave. For small states, such a diktat could somehow be justified. But for Maharashtra to ban home isolation in 18 districts is simply bizarre.
The decision was taken after a meeting of the Uddhav government with district authorities. As per this decision, any Covid positive patient, whether showing mild symptoms or asymptomatic, will still have to get mandatorily admitted in Corona Care Centres. “We have asked these districts to increase the bed capacity. We have asked these districts to focus on testing. The focus should be on high-risk contacts of positive patients,” said Health Minister Rajesh Tope.
The Maharashtra government’s excuse to ban home isolation in 18 districts is that people have been found violating the home isolation norms and that despite a lockdown, the state is reporting over 20,000 daily new infections. While the high number of new infections is a result of the MVA government’s alleged ineptitude, the ordinary people will now have to face the brunt of administrative inefficiency by compulsorily getting treatment at a Corona Care Centre.
Is this true? If yes, it is another hare-brained idea. Those who have the means to do home quarantine, like a separate room, why should they be forced to go to a quarantine centre? Why force the elderly to move out of the comfort of their homes if they have mild symptoms? pic.twitter.com/zrtlrft87q
— Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 (@ShefVaidya) May 25, 2021
The 18 districts where home isolation of Covid-19 patients has been banned are Ratnagiri, Osmanabad, Beed, Hingoli, Akola, Amravati, Thane, Sangli, Gadchiroli, Wardha, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Latur, Satara, Sindhudurg, Raigad, Pune and Kolhapur.
The decision to ban home isolation in 18 high caseload districts of Maharashtra will be perhaps one of the biggest blunders of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government to date. The decision will disproportionately increase the burden on the Corona Care Centres and they can become a super spreader of the virus. Even if the patients have mild symptoms, the fatality rate could rise due to continuous exposure to high virulent load and overburdening of the Centre, leading to no one patient getting proper care.
This can lead to a rise in the per capita numbers of Covid cases in Maharashtra – a trend that would then inevitably engulf the entire nation. As a result of the draconian institutional treatment diktat, people will now feel reluctant to even get tested for Covid-19. So, lesser cases will be reported in Maharashtra, leading to an unprecedented rise in the positivity and reproductive rate of the virus. All in all, the government of Maharashtra must immediately take back their decision to ban home quarantine in 18 districts.