At least 23 people at the Asha Kiran shelter home for the mentally challenged in northeast Delhi’s Rohini have tested positive for Covid-19, including children, adult inmates and staffers. The home run, by the Delhi government’s social welfare department, houses 960 inmates but only has the capacity for 550.
According to officials at the home, of the 23 inmates who tested positive between June 5 and June 20, eight are children in the age group of 11-13, seven are adult inmates and the remaining are staffers, including caregivers as well as a doctor deputed at the facility. Of the total, three staffers tested positive in the first week of June, one of whom succumbed to the infection while three others recovered and are currently in home isolation.
“At present, 20 persons, including children, adult inmates and caregivers, have been admitted to different quarantine facilities. The children mostly had mild symptoms and have been shifted to the Sultanpuri Covid Care Centre. The others have been admitted to Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital in Ashok Vihar and GTB Hospital in Dilshad Garden. It is difficult for the children, as they need full-time support. Even though we have a staff crunch, we have deployed the children’s attendants at the facilities, as they are close to their caregivers and rely only on them for their needs,” AK Kaushal, administrator of the shelter home, said.
He added that the first case was reported around June 3 when a caretaker had tested positive.
He had come in contact with children on May 29 while serving them food and helping them eat, as most of the inmates suffering moderate or severe mental disabilities need help with such activities.
“Soon after the first positive case was reported, we isolated around 11 children. We got them tested and only two asymptomatic children were found to be positive. Following this, another staffer tested positive in the first week of June and died on June 10. We then got tests conducted at a larger scale and found that many had been infected,” he said.
Testing of inmates and staff at the shelter home is being done regularly by the district health officials. Around 30-40 samples are collected every other day, officials said.
A senior official, who is in home isolation as well, said that all precautions were being taken and the staff was being called to work in shifts to reduce the number of people coming from outside at a given time. He added that limited transport availability was adding to the staff crunch.
“Everyone is being thermally screened at the entrance, and except for the staff, no visitors are allowed. Despite all precautions, the infection started with one of the staffers. Since it takes around 5-7 days for symptoms to develop, people inside the home were exposed to the infection,” the official said.
One of the caretakers, who did not wish to be named, alleged that the number of people being infected must be more than 50, as distancing is not possible among so many inmates. “Initially when two caretakers had tested positive, no immediate action was taken. It was only later that some children were isolated and tests were conducted. Also, there is no regular sanitisation within the premises,” he said.
Delhi social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautum said, “I have come to know of the positive cases. We take daily reports from the home. I have been informed that those in quarantine are recovering well. Besides, a community centre near the home has been roped in to isolate the inmates, including the children, if they show any symptoms and tests are being conducted regularly.”
