PANJIM: State government has directed the local governing bodies to take “special care” to ensure confidentiality of COVID-19 positive patients to protect the patient from any social stigma.
The member secretary of State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) Sanjay Kumar has asked all the village panchayats and municipal bodies to monitor that the COVID-19 positive patients are under strict home isolation.
“Patients who are COVID positive and are under home isolation needs to be monitored for their strict isolation to avoid spread of infection,” Kumar said.
The local bodies are directed to provide support to these patients with regard to the provisions of medicines, food or any other items, as required by them. The SDMA also said that ambulance support also to be made available to the patients in case of hospitalisation.
“A special care must be taken to ensure confidentiality of the patients details to prevent any social stigma or ostracisation,” Kumar said.
Further, the local bodies are also directed to ensure that orders under Section 144 CrPC are being adhered to and those establishments, which have been directed for closure.
The panchayats and municipalities are asked to act against the violators with support of the local police in coordination with the Deputy Collectors.
During the recent interaction with the panchayat bodies, the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant had appealed them to work in coordination with the Government to fight COVID-19 pandemic.
