Odisha’s Unlock 1.0 strategy involves relaxing lockdown measures while putting a stringent plan in place to check its spurt in number of cases since early May. The State has recorded a massive jump in the cases and most of these come from quarantine centres.
In rural Odisha, seven days of Institutional Quarantine is mandatory for people. After the completion, asymptomatic patients are allowed to leave but have to go for a compulsory seven days of Home Quarantine. However, in urban areas, foreign returnees have to undergo 14 days of Home Quarantine. These returnees have to self isolate, quarantine themselves at home & reach out to health services in case if/when symptoms show. Representatives from 104 helpline call them on their registered mobile number and enquire about their health.
Home Quarantine, contrary to popular belief, is not the same as self-isolation even though both are public health precautions used to contain the spread of COVID-19. While isolation is a practice to separate the sick from healthy people, Quarantine not just separates but also restricts the movement of people who were exposed to the virus but are not sure of the infection yet. Quarantine is a means to restrict people to an area not accessible by others. This is done to ensure that a person has not be exposed to the virus, before releasing them to mainstream society.
Exceptions: Districts with a spike in cases because of people jumping quarantine have increased their number of quarantine days. While Nayagarh stuck to the State Government quarantine norms, Kendrapara increased the number of days for Institutional Quarantine to fourteen days.
What Does Home Quarantine Entail?
According to Guidelines for Home Quarantine by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), detection of a travel related/unrelated suspect case of novel CoronaVirus Disease (COVID-19) will have to follow rapid isolation in designated health facilities/home quarantine along with all the contacts of such cases.
Home quarantine applies to all such "contacts" of a suspect or confirmed case of COVID-19 defined as:
The epidemiological link may have occurred within a fourteen-day period before the onset of illness in the case under consideration.
Check out the FAQs below for more clarity on Home Quarantine.
(Note: These norms are subject to change depending on the COVID-19 situation in Odisha.)
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