The Bengal government has asked authorities of the districts as well as Calcutta Municipal Corporation to monitor asymptomatic Covid-19 patients or patients exhibiting mild symptoms in home isolation.

The development follows the revelation ahead of Durga Puja that patients violating home-isolation norms led to a sudden spurt in Covid deaths and infections across Bengal.

A senior government official said most Covid-19 patients at home with no or mild symptoms did not obey safety norms. “They (Covid patients staying at home) are coming in contact with several people or not informing the health department if case their health deteriorates. This has led to sudden surge of deaths and spread of positive cases of late,” said a senior government official.

This was happening, sources said, because many patients did not engage caregivers during home isolation.

Usually, caregivers are professionals with basic training in handling a patient with an infectious disease.

“The health department tracks asymptomatic and mildly positive patients through caregivers, whose number must be given to the health department if a patient decides to stay at home.

As many patients do not engage caregivers, it is difficult to monitor patients at homes,” said a senior official.

The state government has decided to bring all mildly positive or asymptomatic patients to safe homes if they don’t engage a caregiver or have no space at home for isolation.

“If there is no adequate space for home isolation or no appropriate caregiver is present, patients with mild disease (mild form of Covid-19) should be managed at Safe Homes,” reads an order issued by the health department.

An official said that while allowing mild and asymptomatic patients to stay at home, the state health department had made a caregiver staying with the patient mandatory.

In most cases this order was taken lightly, he said.

Senior officials said tightening home isolation norms would bring down the toll too.

“Covid patients (at home) come late to hospitals. Most of them deteriorate without realising it while at home... Presence of caregivers could help us manage the situation better,” said an official.

“The absence of caregivers (in most cases) made the situation critical,” the official said.

A health official added: “We are working on a strategy to ensure that the situation (pandemic) does not spiral out of control after the festive season.”