The Union Health ministry has revised home isolation guidelines to include asymptomatic positive patients in the list of mild or pre-symptomatic coronavirus infection cases.
However, immuno compromised patients (included HIV, transplant recipients, cancer therapy) are not eligible for home isolation.
Elderly patients aged above 60 years and those with co-morbid conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung/liver/kidney disease and cerebro-vascular disease among others shall only be allowed home isolation after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer.
Patients under home isolation will stand discharged after 10 days of onset of symptoms and no fever for three days, the guidelines stated.
The asymptomatic patients like the ones who are pre-symptomatic and have very mild symptoms can opt for home isolation.
According to the guidelines, a caregiver should be available to provide care on 24×7 basis and a communication link between the caregiver and a hospital is a prerequisite for the entire duration of home isolation. Besides, the guidelines reiterated that the caregiver and all close contacts of such cases should take hydroxychloroquine as a preventive medication as per the protocol and as prescribed by the treating medical officer. Patients should monitor their health and regularly inform the health status to the district surveillance officer, who will facilitate further follow up by the surveillance teams. The patient also has to give an undertaking stating that being diagnosed as a confirmed/suspect case of COVID-19, he/she hereby voluntarily undertakes to maintain strict self-isolation at all times for the prescribed period, the guidelines said.