The government on Sunday released guidelines to be followed by Covid-19 patients on safe home care.
The release of the guidelines follows the government’s decision to decongest hospitals and prevent them from being overwhelmed.
ASYMPTOMATIC
To respond to an already overstretched healthcare system, Ministry of Health acting Director-General Patrick Amoth hospitals will be discharging asymptomatic Covid-19 patients to go and recuperate at home.
The first guideline is that the patient must have a Covid-19 report from the laboratory.
Secondly, the patient must be asymptomatic or have a very mild form of the disease based on triaging of the doctors and clinicians.
Third is that the patient must have no existing comorbidity like High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, chronic chest problem, chronic clinic problems and the likes.
The fourth guideline is that one must have adequate space, preferably a separate space from the rest of the household members, where one will be able to stay during isolation.
The isolation room must also be well ventilated so as to reduce the risk of spread of the highly infectious disease.
REFERRAL PLAN
Strict adherence to infection control prevention guidelines was the fifth measure which includes washing hands, use of sanitisers, having a mask for the patient together with the caregiver.
No visitor will be allowed to the particular room except the caregiver was the sixth guideline, while the seventh makes it mandatory for the patient to have access to PPEs and a thermometer to check the temperature.
The eighth measure noted that the patient must have a plan for a referral in case one’s condition changes. One must identify a facility in which they can quickly be referred to seek further care if the need arises.
Lastly the patient must have a proper waste disposal system and separate cutlery for use to limit the spread of the disease.
The home-based care which will be launched by the Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has been advocated by World Health Organization (WHO) to ease health systems.
According to the new WHO protocols, patients who are still positive but have been in quarantine for 14 days can still be released from treatment centers because they are not contagious.
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