Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government today announced to allow home isolation of persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 but are either asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, subject to fulfillment of certain conditions in urban areas.
“Tested positive patients who are asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic will be allowed home isolation subject to compliance of certain conditions in urban areas,” informed Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy addressing a presser on COVID management at the Geeta Govinda Sadan here today.
Tripathy said that in the first phase home isolation of asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic COVID-19 positive patients will be allowed in 114 urban local bodies (municipal corporations, municipalities and NACs), district headquarter towns, sub-divisional headquarter towns and block headquarters.
The Chief Secretary said that as part of the monitoring mechanism for home isolation following symptoms like difficulty in breathing, oxygen saturation dips below 95%, persistent pain, etc. have to be monitored.
In the event of any requirement, patients will be shifted to the nearest critical health facility, he added.
He said that for self-isolation an undertaking will be obtained from the patient that he/she would follow all guidelines, adhere to call centre responses, etc.
“For home isolation patients there has to be an adult caregiver who would be the most critical person in the household, his/her mobile number will be noted and he/she would be the bridge between the government and that family,” he added.
“It is a well-established fact that staying at home is psychologically more beneficial for the patients. Studies and surveys have shown that patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms often feel distressed on being shifted to hospitals or elsewhere. Besides, these patients won’t acquire secondary infections which patients in some cases acquire from a hospital stay. Moreover, since family members will insist on the patient to adhere to hygiene and other protocols, the patient’s infectiveness will be less,” stated Tripathy speaking about the benefits of home isolation for a patient.
The Chief Secretary said that direct benefit from this will be a better use of critical resources like hospitals as the number of patients increase in the coming days.
“We think that home isolation will be a preferred mode in urban areas. However, in the case of exceptions where separate rooms and toilets do not exist, the patients would be accommodated and treated at institutional or health facilities,” he clarified.
However, HIV patients, transplant recipients, those undergoing cancer therapy, elderly patients with co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung/liver/kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, etc. will not be allowed for home-isolation, Tripathy further clarified.