Odisha: Posters not to be affixed outside houses of Covid positive cases

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today asked the District Administrations not to put up posters outside the houses of Covid positive patients who are under home isolation.

In a letter, the Health and Family Welfare Department directed the District Collectors, Municipal Commissioners and Medical Officers to discontinue pasting posters in front of the house of Covid affected with immediate effect.

Mentioning that the number of Covid positive cases are declining steadily across the State, the letter read, “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 Odisha government’s decision came a day after the Supreme Court observed that Covid-19 notices pasted outside residences of patients lead to their considerations as “untouchables” by others.

The apex court said that the ground reality is such that once such notices are pasted outside Covid-19 patients’ houses, others began to treat them as untouchables.

Representing the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated before the apex court that the Union government has not given any directions to paste Covid warning notices outside infected persons’ houses. “The states may have decided to do it,” Mehta said.

The SC was hearing a plea against the decision of State governments and Union Territories to affix posters/notices outside residences of Covid-19 patients staying in home isolation.