Odisha: No More Posters Outside Houses Of Covid-19 Affected

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government on Wednesday has directed all the district administrations to discontinue pasting of notices/posters outside the houses of the Covid-19 affected people under home isolation.

The Health and Family Welfare Department has shot off a letter to all the district Collectors asking them to discontinue the practice.

The letter stated "the number of Covid-positive cases is declining steadily across the State. It is now felt that identification of the houses of Covid-19 patients under Home Isolation by pasting of posters outside their houses is not a requirement anymore."

The development came a day after the Supreme Court observed that such posters are stigmatising the Covid-19 patients under home isolation.

The apex court said that such notices treated the patients 'untouchable' though the ground reality is 'something different'.

In reply, the Centre argued that it has not prescribed any such rule. The States are pursing the practice to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Court had directed the Centre to consider issuing nationwide guidelines to do away with the practice of pasting posters outside the homes of COVID-19 patients.

The Delhi government had stopped the practice following a directive from Delhi High Court. Punjab had also earlier stopped affixing such notices.

In March this year, the Odisha Government had decided to paste stickers outside the houses of persons placed under home isolation to prevent local transmission. The decision was taken after reports of foreign returnees violating quarantine norms came to fore.

The State government had considered the pasting of posters as community monitoring guidelines.  The posters were put with an instruction to the neighbours not to visit the houses and keep a tab on the persons under home quarantine.