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Healthcare workers don’t reach out to home quarantined COVID-19 patients

The government said the decision of home quarantine, or home isolation of a COVID-19 patient, should be made by health professionals after proper assessment of the home condition, but the practice has not been followed.

Most homes where COVID-19 patients are quarantined have never been visited by a healthcare worker, reported Mint, citing officials in the Union health ministry.

The step to recommending home quarantine was opted due to the scarcity of healthcare providers, lack of infrastructure and resources, amid the rising novel coronavirus infection.

“Government policy specifically mentioned that the decision of home quarantine or isolation would be made by health professionals after proper assessment of the home condition. However, this was not followed in all the cases,” Dr Jugal Kishore, professor and head, department of community medicine, Safdarjung Hospital, told the publication.

The doctor said it has been seen that patients, who are isolating at home, recovered and a lot of government resources were saved. However, continued monitoring and safety measures should have been instituted, apart from allowing home isolation, for further control of COVID-19, Kishore was quoted as saying.

Suresh Sharma, head, Population Research Centre, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University, termed home quarantine a ‘good option’. However, he was quick to add that it is not suitable for every part of the country such as in urban slums, especially in Delhi and Mumbai, where the living spaces are very small.

India’s COVID-19 caseload has surged past the 31-lakh mark with a single-day spike of 61,408 COVID-19 cases. Recoveries surged to 23,38,035, pushing the recovery rate to over 75 percent, according to the Union health ministry data. The death toll climbed to 57,542 with 836 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data last updated at 8 am on August 24 showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate has declined to 1.85 percent, while the recovery rate has risen to 75.27 percent, as per the ministry’s data. – Moneycontrol

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