At least some of the people who have completed their 14-day quarantine at home after returning from abroad are unsure about how to conduct themselves over the next few days, conversations with them revealed.
Can they step out? Can they mingle with others or visit the market? Do they still have to be in touch with health officials? Many don’t seem to have answers to these questions.
A 41-year-old woman from Salt Lake said she had not received any call from any government official since her home quarantine ended on Tuesday.
She was not sure what to do and called up a Covid-19 helpline, mentioned on the website of the state health department, on Wednesday.
“Health officials had earlier told me that the home quarantine was for 14 days. I wanted to be doubly sure whether I could enter the room where my son and husband have been staying over the past two weeks,” said the woman, who had returned from London in the middle of March.
On calling the helpline, she was told that there was no bar on her meeting her son and husband since her quarantine period was over and she had not developed any Covid-19 symptom such as fever, cough or breathing trouble.
Doctors have said these three are symptoms that should alert a person that he or she might have contracted SARS-CoV2, or the new coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
The person who answered her call, however, did not tell her that she needed to call the helpline and alert the government if she developed any of the symptoms in the next 14 days.
Asymptomatic persons who returned from abroad were required to undergo a 28-day home surveillance, split into two parts of 14-day each, an official of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) said.
In Calcutta, the civic body is entrusted with the responsibility of keeping tabs on people who have been asked to quarantine themselves at home after their return from abroad.
The CMC official said a person was free to mingle with others in the family in the second phase — from the 15th day to the 28th day — but must not stop self-surveillance.
“The first 14 days form the active surveillance period, during which we, from the government, call up the person every day and find out whether he or she has any of the Covid-19 symptoms — fever, cough or breathing trouble,” the official said.
During the second phase, which is called passive surveillance, the person has to be under self-surveillance.
“The second phase is as important as the first. It must be clearly explained to the person what he or she needs to do during the passive surveillance period. During the second phase, the person has to alert the health department via the helplines mentioned on the department’s website if he or she develops any Covid-19 symptom,” the official said.
The Salt Lake woman, however, told Metro that the person who answered her call to the helpline did not tell her anything about passive surveillance. “The person who spoke to me said I could enter the room where my son and husband are staying wearing a mask,” she said.
The guidelines for home quarantine issued by the Union health ministry does not say anything about how one should live after the first 14 days.
A man in his 20s who had returned from Amsterdam, via Dubai, on March 16 had a better experience. “I received a call on the 15th day. They told me not to step out for another 14 days unless it is absolutely necessary. Even at home, they asked me to maintain social distancing with my family members,” said the resident of Topsia, who had spent the quarantine period alone, away from his family. He met his family members only on Wednesday.
