NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, MARCH 14
The Gujarat Governor on Friday approved the Gujarat Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19 Regulations, 2020, which will be in force for a year. After getting the Governor’s nod, the state government notified it, says a top health department official.
According to the new rule, all government and private hospitals must have “flu corners” for the screening of suspected cases. They should also record the travel history of the suspected or confirmed patient, as well as the details of those, came in contact with them at the time of the screening.
The regulation also prohibits relaying information on coronavirus by any person or institution or organisation without the permission of the health department, violation of which will be a punishable offence. Any person, institution or organisation found to violate any of the provisions of the regulation, shall be deemed to have committed an offence under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The regulation also grants immunity against legal proceedings or legal suit “for anything done or intended to be done in good faith… unless proved otherwise”.
The regulations also empower authorised persons to forcefully admit, retain, keep and isolate for 14 days if a suspected patient resists or refuses hospital admission. Authorised persons include health commissioners, municipal commissioners and district collectors or any other authorised officer by the health department.
In case COVID-19 cases are reported from a defined geographic area such as a village, town city, ward, colony or settlement, the district administration shall have the right to seal the geographical area, bar entry and exit to the area, close schools, offices and ban public gatherings, ban vehicular movement, designate any government or private building as a containment unit for isolation of cases.
In such a scenario, the regulation also allows the district administration to have all government department staff of the area at the district administration’s disposal for discharging the duty of containment measures. The regulations were assented to by the Gujarat governor and was signed by health department principal secretary Jayanti Ravi.
Health commissioner Jaiprakash Shivahare added that the regulations have been framed as a preventive measure and were part of the state’s preparedness plan to arrest any outbreak.
Another circular from the Gujarat health department dated March 13, signed by Ravi, stated that all organised workshops, conferences, and seminars in government offices have been suspended until March 31.
