Violators won’t be prosecuted: health secy

NT NETWORK

Panaji

Health Secretary Nila Mohanan on Monday said the government will not prosecute persons if they are found violating the home quarantine norms. However, the violator, along with family, will be placed under institutional quarantine, she said.

“There is no booking of people and there is no law under which we are booking them (violators of quarantine norms). Our new protocol says very specifically that if they are found violating home quarantine norms they will be shifted to institutional quarantine along with their family. It is not booking under the provision of any law. It is an action we are taking to ensure that they don’t continue to violate quarantine,” Mohanan said addressing a press conference in Panaji.

When asked about the number of people, who have been reported to violate the quarantine norms ever since the lockdown was imposed in the state, Mohanan said, “Till date, many people have been home-quarantined. We got few complaints from here and there that some people are not maintaining home quarantine, a couple of them were genuine and some of them were not genuine. At that point, we would go, take them and take the necessary steps.”

Mohanan said that with the revised protocol, now the health department will be more stringent, as a large number of people may opt for home quarantine.

“We will get to know how many people are violating the norms only when we start implementing it. Today was the first day of the new protocol that came into effect. It is not booking under a law per se, it is an action we take as a health department to ensure that they don’t continue the violations,” she said.