The Central Government had, last week, issued an order making it compulsory for new patients to visit care centres for clinical assessment to ascertain whether they should be kept in home isolation or be hospitalized.

 

Since then, the AAP government in Delhi has been defending its home isolation approach to control the spread of coronavirus.

 

"The Central government's order to have a mandatory clinical assessment of Corona positive patients in the government facility is chaotic. 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?" said Kejriwal in a statement.

 

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 our earlier order, if a person was tested positive, we had our medical team visit the patient at their homes, do the required assessment, and then tell them if they need to stay in home isolation or go to a hospital," Kejriwal emphasized, seeking rollback of the Centre's order.

 

Earlier on Wednesday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that he has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking quashing of order.

 

"This is not a fight between Amit Shah and Kejriwal's model," Sisodia said in a press briefing here, adding that a system in which people do not face any issue "should rather be implemented".

 

The development came a day after Sisodia shot a letter to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal seeking his intervention on the same issue.

 

The Deputy Chief Minister asked Baijal to withdraw the order and reinstate the earlier procedure in which a medical team visits the house of the infected patient to assess his health condition.

 

"Delhi is witnessing at least 3,000 cases every day, even more, so if these infected people step out, it will further increase the risk of infection," Sisodia said.

 

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases have shot to 70,390 in Delhi, with over 2,365 deaths.