New Delhi: In a significant development, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Minister has asked all states and UTs to ensure that health care workers with high-risk exposure to the COVID 19 virus go for one week quarantine.
Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal in a letter said that people with high exposure to the virus while performing COVID duty are required to undergo quarantine initially for one week only.
"Thereafter, taking the profile of such health care workers a decision shall be taken by institutions to extend quarantine for a further period of one week. This quarantine has been prescribed in the largest public interest to stop the spread of the disease," Agarwal said. He said that such quarantine by doctors and health care workers will be treated as "on duty."
The Supreme Court had earlier asked for clarification from the central government on the issue after an application filed by the United Resident Doctors Association (URDA) which says that many states were treating quarantine period as causal leave.
The physician groups had alleged that they were forced to apply for leave without pay in the absence of enough casual leaves.
"The matter has since been considered by the Ministry in consultations with the department of personnel and training, and it has been decided that the quarantine period of doctors and health workers needs to be treated as on duty," Agarwal said in his letter.
However, as per the Indian Medical Association (IMA) estimate as many as 196 doctors have lost their lives due to COVID 19.
Meanwhile, India on Monday registered more than 1.5 million Covid19 recovery numbers with the highest ever single-day recovery of 54,859 patients in the last 24 hours. Recovery now has exceeded the active case by more than 9 lakh with the fatality rate of 2 percent.
Health Ministry statistics said that 15,35,743 patients have been recovered till date with a recovery rate of 70 percent. There are 6,34,945 active cases across the country. Significantly, COVID 19 cases still remain concentrated in 10 states that contribute more than 80 percent of the new cases.
"The aggressive testing and tracking through house to house surveys, containment strategies, and surveillance in these areas may lead to an initial increase in positive cases. However, well-implemented strategies will ensure it reduce over time," health ministry officials said.
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