Residents’ Welfare Associations across the city are finding it difficult to manage quarantine dates of residents who have tested positive for Covid.

Many residents who have the infection are trying to come out of their homes after the completion of 10 days of home isolation following a new government directive. RWAs are struggling to ascertain if such patients were asymptomatic — a prerequisite for ending home isolation in 10 days.

Many housings complexes — from Urbana to South City — are insisting on the 14-day quarantine and this is often inconveniencing some residents.

According to a fresh government advisory on home isolation issued on April 28, 2021, “a patient in home isolation stands discharged and ends isolation after at least 10 days have passed from the onset of symptoms or from the date of sampling for asymptomatic cases and no fever for three days”.

Many housing complexes are finding it difficult to ascertain if a patient in isolation is symptomatic or asymptomatic.

According to the government order, “a patient who is clinically assigned a mild/ asymptomatic case by treating medical officer and has oxygen saturation of more than 94 per cent,” can be termed as “asymptomatic” and eligible for home isolation.

A resident of a housing complex near Garia lodged a police complaint earlier this week against the RWA for allegedly asking her Covid-affected in-laws’ to stay in home isolation for 17 days despite the government advisory.

The complainant said: “My in-laws’ are asymptomatic. Their names were mailed to all members with specific dates till when they are supposed to be quarantined. They (the RWA) were forcing them to stay in isolation for 17 days which is no longer required.”

An office bearer of the RWA said: “The new directive says that the home isolation period of an asymptomatic person can end after 10 days from the onset of symptoms or from the date of sample collection. But as many residents report late to us or as these days there is a gap between onset of symptoms and collection of samples due to shortage of kits or sample collectors, it is difficult to ascertain the actual date of onset of symptoms. Hence, for the safety of the gated community as a whole, we are abiding by the earlier order that suggested 17 days of home isolation. The matter has however been resolved and we have issued the revised dates based on the 10-day calculation.”

In May last year, the government had issued a directive that suggested that “patients under home isolation will end home isolation after 17 days of onset of symptoms (or date of sampling for pre-symptomatic cases) and no fever for 10 days”.

In the above-mentioned case, however, the RWA was forced to roll back the ending date of the complainant’s family’s quarantine period after police intervened on Friday.

To avoid this kind of confusion, Urbana and South City are sticking to the 14-day protocol, their officials said.

“We are strictly following the 14-day protocol. We are counting the date from the day the resident submits the report to us. If someone makes a delay in informing us, the quarantine period starts from the day we receive information. This is to encourage timely reporting,” said an Urbana official.

South City housing complex. Telegraph picture

In South City Residency, residents are asked to stay in home isolation for a minimum period of 14 days.

“Some families are very cooperative and agree to stay indoors for 17 days, too. If they are reluctant, they mandatorily have to complete at least 14 days in isolation,” said a South City official.

An official of the Upohar housing complex said they were trying to convince the residents to isolate for at least 14 days despite the 10-day directive. “Most residents are listening to us because we are arranging everything at their doorsteps,” said one of the office bearers.