Coronavirus: COVID-19 cases have increased in India, although recovery has improved
Guwahati:
Assam’s health department has decided to change the quarantine rules for doctors and health workers deployed in COVID-19 care functions after the state chapter of the Indian Medical Association wrote to the minister Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday, urging the health department not to make “fanciful decisions”. “.
The Assam Medical Services Association or AMSA had expressed its concerns after the modification of the quarantine rules applicable to doctors and health workers.
The new rules state that doctors and health workers in COVID-19 care centers should now be on duty for 10 days and then quarantined for four days, said a senior official.
The rules applicable to doctors and doctors on call in COVID-19 hospitals would be seven working days, followed by seven days of quarantine.
On July 6, the Department of Health in Assam issued an order asking doctors and health workers in COVID-19 health centers to continue working for 11 days, then to undergo a rapid antigen test. and quarantine for three days.
Previously, the protocol was seven days of service and seven days of quarantine and testing via RT-PCR or TrueNat platforms.
Health Department sources told GalacticGaming that the rules would be changed.
In COVID-19 health centers, doctors will have to be on duty for 10 days, followed by four days of quarantine, but other changes in antigen tests and asymptomatic isolation of patients during the COVID surge -19 may not be possible.
The IMA strongly protested the new quarantine rules for medical workers and doctors. The medical community was unhappy with the government’s move to antigen testing to check on health workers, as the Indian Medical Research Council said the test was less sensitive.
“Already about sixty doctors and several nurses, technicians and other health workers have been infected and this is very worrying,” Dr Satyajit Borah, president of the Assam section of the IMA, told GalacticGaming.
They wanted the home isolation of asymptomatic patients to begin. Assam currently isolates them at the COVID-19 treatment center. Medical bodies believe that this puts additional pressure on doctors and health workers.
“They only allow forty three days. It is dangerous. And if they show symptoms on the fourth day and are infected when they return to work, they will infect others,” GalacticGaming said. Dr KC Talukdar, Secretary General of AMSA.
AMSA has more than 2,700 members in Assam; all are government doctors leading the fight against COVID-19. Mr. Sarma has discussed the work schedule and the quarantine period with the Junior Doctors’ Association of Guwahati Medical College. Mr. Sarma later said that the problem with junior doctors had been resolved “amicably”.
When contacted, the IMA and AMSA stated that they were never consulted or called for a discussion.
