The number of coronavirus cases has been on a steady increase throughout our country, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued guidelines for citizens under proper monitoring on how they can prepare themselves for home quarantine.
The govt has issued a statement affirming that home quarantine is applicable for everyone regardless of someone suspected of COVID-19 or are confirmed with the virus.
Rules for Person under home quarantine:
- Keep distance from elderly people, pregnant women and children.
- Strongly restrict your movement within the house and under no circumstances attending a social gathering.
- Wash your hands very often thoroughly with soap, water or with sanitizer.
- Avoid sharing household items e.g. dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with other people at home.
- Keep wearing your surgical mask all the time. The mask should be changed every six to eight hours and disposed of.
- Disposable masks should never be reused. The used mask can have an infection.
- If any signs show (cough/ fever/ difficulty in breathing), he/she should immediately inform the nearest health centre and call 011-23978046 immediately.
Rules for family members of the quarantined Person:
- An assigned family member should be given the task of taking care of the person.
- Disposable gloves should be used when cleaning the surfaces or handling soiled linen and hands need to be properly washed after removing gloves.
- Visitors should refrain from meeting the person.
- In case the person being quarantined becomes symptomatic, all his close contacts will be home-quarantined (for 14 days) and followed up for an additional 14 days or till the report of such case turns out negative on lab testing.
Environmental sanitation:
- Cleaning needs to be done frequently of touched surfaces in the quarantined person’s room, disinfectant needs to be poured on surfaces frequently and also the toilet surfaces need to be cleaned daily with regular household bleach solution/ phenolic disinfectants.
- Clothes and other linen needs to be properly cleaned used by the person separately using common household detergent and dry.
- A person showing no symptoms should not be using a mask.
Why you should not wear a medical mask if you do not have COVID19 symptoms?
- It is very important to note that medical masks should never be used by healthy persons who are not having any symptoms, it can lead to the creation of a false sense of security that many might not look into other essential measures such as the washing of hands.
- There has been no scientific evidence to show the health benefit of using masks for non-sick persons in the community.
- As a matter of fact, putting erroneous masks or continuous use of a disposable mask for longer than six hours or repeated use of the same mask may actually increase the risk of getting an infection for a person.
- Patients are advised to rather keep using three-layered masks when you suffer from cough or fever. This will prevent your infection from spreading to others.
Who needs to use medical masks?
- Family members of any suspected/ confirmed cases undergoing home care should be using a triple-layer medical mask.
- A medical mask, if properly worn can remain effective for eight hours. If it gets wet in between, it needs to be changed immediately.
What is the correct way of wearing a medical mask?
- First, unfold the pleats and make sure that they are down facing.
- Than place mask over nose, mouth and chin.
- Fit flexible nose piece (a metallic strip that can easily be located) over nose-bridge. Secure with tie strings (upper string to be tied on top of the head above the ears – lower string at the back of the neck.)
- Then ensure there lies no gap on either side of the mask, adjust to fit.
- Do not touch the mask too much while you use it.
- While removing the mask do not touch any contaminated surface, remove it with care.
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