Asymptomatic Covid-19 patients or ones with mild symptoms have to provide three documents, along with an application, to be considered eligible for home isolation, officials of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and the state health department have said.

The documents are a declaration each from a doctor that she or he will monitor the patient daily, from a caregiver that he or she will provide food and other stuff at the door of the room where the patient will stay alone and from a neighbour or a relative that he or she will deliver ration at the family’s doorstep.

Along with the three papers, the patient has to send an application to the civic body expressing his or her desire to be at home. The patient has to state in the application that he or she will stay alone in a room with an attached toilet.

The civic body will forward the documents to the state health department, which will decide on the application. If the request for home isolation is rejected, the patient has to be shifted to a satellite health facility of a private hospital or a “safe home” of the state government.

“If a Calcuttan tests positive for Covid-19, the health department gets in touch with the person immediately. Based on enquiries over the phone, a preliminary assessment is done. If it is found that the person has mild symptoms and prefers to stay at home, health department officials ask him or her to ready the documents,” a CMC official said.

Civic health workers then visit the home to collect the papers and verify whether the claims are true or not. “If it is found that the person shares a room with others, she or he will be asked to shift to a quarantine centre, paid or free.

If the person or the family resists, police and the local ward coordinator are asked to intervene,” a CMC official said.

The doctor’s certificate is meant to ensure that the patient is always under proper medical care. “This is an additional layer of protection. If a patient’s condition worsens suddenly, the doctor will intervene,” the official said.

The CMC has a team that calls up patients in home quarantine every day to enquire about his or her health.

The caregiver’s letter is needed to know that the patient will get cooked meals at home and there is someone at home who can do basic monitoring of his or her health. The letter from a neighbour or relative who will deliver ration at the doorstep is necessary because the family members will not be allowed to step out for two weeks.

“Since the family members are the primary contacts of the patients, they must remain quarantined at home for 14 days,” a health department official said.

The state government has allowed private hospitals to open satellite facilities in nearby properties where asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients can stay. The people in the satellite facilities will be monitored and under regular check-up of the hospital.

“The mild or asymptomatic patients need not be admitted in hospital. They can remain under care of doctors in a satellite facility,” said a health department official.