The provincial governments in Sindh and Punjab have recently acceded to the proposal that confirmed covid-19 patients who qualify certain standards set for home quarantine be allowed to self quarantine in their own homes. The SOPs for the purpose have also been circulated.
To allow for Home quarantine is a welcome step as it will help to mitigate the public fear of being taken away by the authorities in case of covid-19 positive cases. The way the health authorities have been seen raiding the houses with a convoy of Rescue, Police and other related departments vehicles has done no good. Rather, it proved counterproductive by instilling an element of fear, shame and stigma among the general public forcing them not to disclose about their symptoms and thus letting the virus spread exponentially. In such an atmosphere, without public cooperation, every policy will fail regardless how flawless that might seem. The government's much touted "track, trace and isolate policy" is no exception.
Now, with the permission of Home Quarantine, it will restore public confidence and enable them to battle against Corona Virus by declaring themselves and adopting the measures on their own. Proper reporting and recording of infected persons data will help the government take informed decisions.
Forcefully taking people to the isolation centres has disastrous psychological, emotional and mental effects. A person' s natural immune system is so far the best known defense against the Corona virus infection. When a person (host) gets infected by the an external disease causing agent or a virus as in this case, a war rages between the virus and the immune system. The one who takes over the other wins. Its also a common knowledge now that immunity takes a downward spiral when one is sad, fearful, stressed or depressed. What to speak of a person's immunity who has just been diagnosed as covid-19 positive and, in a moment, is being forcefully driven away from his home to an unknown abode. Surely, his immunity may plummet so drastically that he may lose the battle against the virus. In this scenario, provision of home quarantine will help lessen the stigma attached with the disease and isolation centres.
But at the same time, the provision of home quarantine option by the government is enough to send shivers down the spine of many. It needs to be taken very as seriously as it implies that either the governments' isolation facilities and apparatus have exhausted completely or are about to get consumed shortly.
It also reflects that, like in any other country in the world, our health system is about to collapse as it has already started giving in to the rapid increase of Covid-19 cases. In such a scenario, to allow for the home quarantine appears to be the best and the last respite for the government. In Europe, where the Covid-19 has hit the hardest, most of the countries adopted the home quarantine policy for the positive cases quite early. It gave their health system enough time and space to prepare and then attend to the critically ill at the later stage. Had they not allowed home quarantine at the beginning of the spread, the death toll would have been multiplied further.
This state of affairs calls for sanity to prevail among the masses. Enough has been said and done to spread awareness as to how to curtail the spread of the invisible virus. Now, in the wake of easing of the lockdown, its obligatory for the people to follow the instructions and guidelines so that the exponential growth of the virus may be arrested. Otherwise, the situation may become too horrible to describe. We must understand, unless the covid-19 vaccine is available, precaution is the only key.
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