DDMA likely to amend law mandating every Covid-19 patient to visit clinic

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority will hold a crucial meeting later in the day wherein a decision is likely to be taken to amend rules requiring every coronavirus patient to visit Covid care centre for clinical assessment, sources said on Thursday.

The AAP government has strongly been opposing the new system which Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal equated with "detention" of Covid-19 patients.

Lt Governor Anil Baijal is the chairman of Delhi Disaster Management Authority while the chief minister is its vice-chairman.

"The DDMA is scheduled to hold a meeting at 5.30 pm on Thursday. In the meeting, a decision to amend new rules is likely to be taken," a source said.

Another source said the authorities may consider giving clinical assessment to confirmed Covid-19 cases at antigen centres.

On Wednesday, Kejriwal had requested the Centre to withdraw the new system requiring assessment of every Covid-19 patient at a government-run facility, saying the order was "not correct".

He said that if the administration and police forcibly take patients to Covid care centres for their clinical assessment, it will be like 15-day detention for them.

Earlier this week, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the lieutenant governor, requesting them to scrap the system.

He had requested the LG to call an urgent meeting of the DDMA to scrap the system as people were facing a lot of issues.

The AAP dispensation has been demanding the implementation of the previous system under which medical teams of district administration will visit the house of infected persons to check on them.

Sisodia on Wednesday had said that there were two models in Delhi - Shah's model which requires every Covid-19 patient to visit a Covid care centre and Kejriwal's model under which medical teams of district administrations go to the homes of infected persons to check on them.

This is not a fight between Shah's model and Kejriwal's model, he said, adding that there should be a system in which people don't face problems.