Isolated patients spreading virus to family members, causing concern

Mysore/Mysuru: With the recent spike in new cases in the second coming of the Coronavirus, health officials and the District Administration have been asked to ramp up monitoring of home isolation cases through a combination of remote (through telephone) and door-to-door outreach measures to prevent them spreading the disease to their family members. 

At a closed-door meeting with District officials including Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri at Zilla Panchayat Hall this noon, Mysuru District Secretary Jayaram said that of late there were many cases where home isolation patients spreading the killer disease to family members including the elderly and children. He asked officers to monitor the isolated patients through phone calls and if need be form surveillance teams to monitor their stay and movements. 

“Those who have tested positive must mandatorily isolate themselves from other members of the household in a well-ventilated room and wear a triple-layered mask. But this is not happening  and family members are getting infected. We need to prevent this at any cost, Jayaram said. 

Monitoring must begin as soon as they test positive and War Room staff and tele-callers must take over. They must be asked if there are facilities for isolation at homes. “They must be constantly counselled and monitored and must be directed not to mingle with other family members. The disease is being spread within the four walls of the houses,” Jayaram opined. 

Patient should avoid sharing personal items with other people at home and the tele-callers must ensure that the isolated patients and their family members are properly counselled. Proportionate to the spurt in new COVID-19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic has been the enlargement of the pool of home isolation cases. The focus must be on guiding their recovery without the need for a hospital visit and also guide them not to spread the disease to other family members, he said. 

If closely monitored and followed, very few home isolation patients experience aggravation of symptoms to a state of emergency that warrants their hospitalisation in a critical care facility. “Please ensure that only those patients who need hospitalisation are sent to healthcare facilities. There is a common notion that whoever tests positive, they all need oxygen and ICU care,” Jayaram said. 

Teams can be tasked with carrying out door-to-door visits to check on the health status of patients and in addition, ASHA volunteers can carry out daily house visits as part of surveillance measures.“What we are seeing from death audits is that people hesitate to disclose whether they are running a temperature or suffering from a headache or body pain. Many patients turn weak and require hospitalisation and they don’t realise this. As such, precious time in diagnosis and treatment is lost. This problem has to be solved,” Jayaram told the officials.