Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday urged the Central government to roll back its order mandating Coronavirus patients to visit COVID care centers for health assessment.
As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government scrambles to contain the virus, Kejriwal said the order was “not correct” and likened it to “15-day detention”.
“If the administration forcibly takes COVID patients for clinical assessment it will be like 15-day detention. I request the centre to withdraw the new system that requires assessment of every COVID-19 patient at government-run facilities,” Kejriwal told reporters.
“If a person is corona positive, and has a body temperature of 100 degree Celsius, or 102 degree Celsius, how will he or she stand in a queue for a medical check-up?” he further questioned.
The Chief Minister added, “Supposedly, your 80-year-old mother gets Corona, and she is asymptomatic or has mild symptoms, and needs treatment at home, how will you take her to a quarantine centre or a government facility?”
As per the Delhi government rule, doctors were visiting the residences of Coronavirus patients for their health assessment.
Meanwhile, the AAP has accused the BJP of “playing with the lives of the people of Delhi”.
“Overriding an already well running system allowing people to be treated at their homes, is tyrannical and against the people,” the party said in a tweet.
Earlier on Wednesday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had lashed out at the Centre saying that today the national capital has two coronavirus models – one is “Amit Shah model” and the other the “Kejriwal model”.
Addressing media, Sisodia said every patient in Delhi should not be asked to visit a quarantine centre for evaluation and added that he had requested Lieutenant Governor to change the rule but received no reply.
The AAP leader further stated that he has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting him to do away with the latest guidelines that has created chaos.
“Today Delhi has two coronavirus models – one is Amit Shah model, which says that anyone testing positive has to go a quarantine centre. The other one is Kejriwal model, which says that a team visits the patient’s home to assess the severity of the case,” Manish Sisodia said.
“I have told Amit Shah that this is not ‘your model versus my model’ fight. We have to minimise the inconvenience for the people. I humbly appeal to him to intervene. He helped revoke the previous order that said that anyone testing positive for coronavirus has to be quarantined for five days,” he further said.
On Tuesday, the deputy CM had written to Delhi L-G Anil Baijal seeking rollback of new rule under which every Coronavirus positive patient has to visit a quarantine centre for clinical assessment, citing “inconvenience to people”.
The Delhi L-G had last week scrapped an order mandating five-days institutional quarantine for COVID-19 patients but said that every person who tests positive be taken to COVID care centres for assessment of their clinical conditions.
The order was scrapped after the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government on Saturday said it could not reach a consensus on Lt. Governor Anil Baijal’s decision of five-day compulsory institutional quarantine for COVID-19 patients in the city.
With the Centre stepping in to aid the Delhi government in its fight against the novel Coronavirus, a difference of opinions seems to be brewing between the two.
Meanwhile, the number of Coronavirus cases have shot to 70,390 in Delhi, with over 2,365 deaths.