bhubaneswar as covid19 cases continue to rise the state government on sunday revised the quarantine norms for returnees reducing the period of institutional quarantine from 21 to seven days with another week in home isolationreturnees in rural areas will undergo seven days of mandatory institutional quarantine after which asymptomatic persons will be discharged to undergo home quarantine for a further period of seven days the government said in an official statement if local authorities find it necessary to extend the period of institutional quarantine for reasons related to containment of covid19 and to prevent spread of infection they may do so the statement added in case the person in quarantine develops symptoms requiring medical attention the person may be shifted to a covid care centre the government informed the revised guidelines have been sent to all district collectorsthe new norms will allow more than 150 lakh people who returned to the state a week back to head home if they do not show symptoms as many as 151065 people have returned to the state till may 17 as per earlier norms these people would have had to stay in institutional quarantine for 21 days they will now vacate the centres for new returnees p k mohapatra additional chief secretary of the heath and family welfare department said we have aligned our quarantine guidelines with that of the centre to 14 days of quarantine the quarantine period of 21 and 28 days as prescribed by the state government was creating confusion among the peoplein urban areas each person on return from outside odisha will have to stay in home quarantine for a period of 14 days observing covid19 guidelines if the returnee does not have a proper quarantine facility at home he or she may stay in institutional or paid quarantine for a period as directed by the local authorities the government addedformer director of aiims bhubaneswar and vicechancellor of soa university dr ashok mohaptra said the world health organisation who has recommended 14 days quarantine and the centre too has said that positive cases can be treated in home isolation so the state did nothing wrong in reducing the quarantine period however he said there was no urgent need to reduce the period of institutional quarantine as the state has developed good infrastructure to fight the increasing number of positive cases asked about the government move dr e venkata rao a professor in community medicine said the healthcare infrastructure in the country is not able to handle the number of positive cases increasing by the day people need to be cautious and take preventive measures to keep the virus at bay and check transmission this move could have been to reduce the burden on institutional quarantine centresthe state meanwhile has decided that government officials professionals businessmen or any other person travelling to odisha on work and intending to exit within 72 hours of arrival or any returnee who has already undergone prescribed isolation are exempted from mandatory quarantine