LG Baijal chairs DDMA meeting to review management of COVID-19 patients

Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal on Thursday chaired the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) meeting to review the management of COVID-19 patients.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) l Baijal on Thursday chaired the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) meeting to review the management of COVID-19 patients.

The DDMA meeting was held to put in place a robust mechsm for surveillance and to provide timely care to the COVID-19 positive patients with minimum inconvenience to the public, the LG office said in a release.

In the meeting, it was discussed that the twin goals to be achieved through effective surveillance system and home isolation are to ensure containment of local spread, including in the family and community and provision of timely medical care in case the medical condition of the COVID-19 positive person in home isolation worsens.

"Similarly, for monitoring of the medical condition of COVID-19 positive persons, trained professionals are required to daily follow up with the concerned individual. If a robust system to achieve these twin objectives is put in place, the risk of further spread of disease from a COVID-19 positive person to other persons during home isolation can be minimised and medical help can be extended timely to those patients whose condition worsens," the release said.

An SoP should be framed to achieve these twin objectives keeping in view the resource availability and public convenience, it said.

"It was informed that as on date, testing of COVID-19 is being done by two methods -- rapid test for COVID-19 antigen and RT-PCR test. It was decided that all cases who test positive by rapid test for COVID-19 antigen will be examined by the Medical Officer on duty at the testing site to assess the severity of illness -- pre-symptomatic/asymptomatic/mild/moderate or severe. The assessment made by the Medical Officer on-site shall effectively constitute an assessment made at the COVID Care Centre," the release said.

The patient shall be allowed home isolation if, as per the assessment of home isolation team sent by the district surveillance officer, the patient is mild/pre-symptomatic/asymptomatic and has a residence of two rooms or a separate room and a separate toilet for the patient.

"He/she will be provided with a contact number for any consultation required by him along with details of CATS Ambulance call number for transfer to the hospital in case symptoms develop," the LG office said.

"If the said patient has moderate/severe symptoms with co-morbidities, he or she shall be transferred to the CCC/CHC/Hospital. In case his or her residence is not found to be fit for home isolation by the surveillance team, the patient will be admitted to COVID Care Centre for isolation as per Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) guidelines," the release said.

It added, "Those who are in home isolation should follow home isolation guidelines laid down by the MoHFW and should stay in touch with healthcare providers so that if their condition deteriorates, they can be moved to the COVID hospitals."

The proposal was agreed by all as it will ensure that the twin goals of containing the spread of the disease and providing timely medical care as and when needed, to save precious lives will be met.

( With inputs from ANI )