PANAJI
Amid government of Goa’s announcement that the third wave has already started in the State the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has issued revised guidelines for home isolation for Covid 19 cases that have been clinically assessed and assigned as mild/asymptomatic. Stating that the asymptomatic cases are laboratory confirmed cases that are not experiencing any symptoms and have oxygen saturation at room air of more than 93 %. Clinically assigned mild cases are patients with upper respiratory tract symptoms with or without fever, without shortness of breath and having oxygen saturation at room air of more than 93 %.For home isolation, the patient should be clinically assigned as a mild/asymptomatic case by the treating medical officer. The patient’s family will be provided with a designated control room contact number at the district or sub-district level to get suitable guidance for undertaking testing, clinical management related guidance, assignment of a hospital bed, if warranted.
A caregiver (ideally someone who has completed his Covid 19 vaccination schedule) should be available to provide care on 24x7 bases. A communication link between the caregiver and medical officer is a pre-requisite for the entire duration of home isolation.
Only elderly patients who are 60 plus and have comorbid conditions (hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung/liver/kidney disease, cerebro-vascular disease) will be allowed for home isolation after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer. Patients suffering from immunocompromised status (HIV, transplant recipients, cancer therapy etc) are not recommended for home isolation and will only be allowed home isolation after a proper evaluation by the treating medical officer. While a patient is allowed home isolation, all other members in the family, including other contacts will follow home quarantine guidelines too.
