The federal government’s newly issued guidelines regarding COVID-19 go against the guidelines of the World Health Organization, as well as advice of Chinese health experts.
The newly issued guidelines state patients with mild symptoms should quarantine themselves at home. However, the WHO recommends isolation of patients carrying virus at proper health facilities, regardless of severity.
Additionally, Chinese experts have also rejected the idea of home isolation of confirmed patients.
The Chinese delegation had told the local experts that the doctors in Wuhan, China, had made the same mistake of allowing positive patients to quarantine at home in the early days of the spread of the coronavirus, which led to the spread worsening.
“Both the WHO and Chinese experts had strongly recommended isolation of the confirmed patients at field hospitals/quarantines or at least at well-equipped hospitals to make sure they are treated under strict protocols,” a senior health official stated.
At various high-level meetings of the Punjab government, some senior experts declared the guidelines of the federal health ministry ‘controversial and risky’.
They cited some recent cases in Punjab where patients, during home isolation, not only arranged private functions but also met relatives, transmitting virus among healthy people.
The experts quoted a case of Gujrat district as a strong reference where four Covid-19 patients coming from abroad had infected over 40 healthy people.
In a country where female and male police officers are being attacked for doing their jobs and not allowing the masses to pray in masjids to save their lives, who can guarantee how well anyone will follow self isolation rules despite testing positive for COVID-19? It would be smart to consider shifting infected individuals to proper health care facilities where their whereabouts, interactions and activities can be monitored appropriately.