COVID-19: Punjab govt releases guidelines for home isolation

LAHORE: Punjab government’s Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department has released a list of guidelines for officials to follow in case a person tests positive for the coronavirus and is permitted to be home isolated.

Guidelines for government-designated isolation facilities:

Any residential quarter like a school building, mosque, hostel, community center, or other suitable building with adequate facilities -under the supervision of concerned District Health Authority (DHA).

Each laboratory-confirmed the coronavirus patient should be kept in a single room with attached bathroom (where possible or grouped together for positive patients).

General premises of the isolation facility, rooms, corridors and washrooms, etc. be disinfected on a daily basis. There will be a system of record-keeping to keep up data of admission/discharge of coronavirus patients.

Solid Waste Management in the isolation facilities will be carried out as per the guidelines issued by the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department.

The isolation facilities should not be established in building with centralized HVACs (Heating, Ventilation and Cooling) as it may spread the COVID-19. Only cooked food in disposable utensils be supplied to the patients.

Guidelines for allowing home isolation and home isolated patients:

Home isolation will be permitted on the recommendations of the ‘Home Isolation Committee’ with the informed consent of the patient.

The committee will be notified by the district deputy commissioner and will include the assistant commissioner (through his designated officer), deputy district health officer, chief officer of Tehsil or Town Municipal Administrations or Municipal Committees (MCs).

The provincial authorities issued a detailed checklist/score sheet that must be filled for assessment of home isolation. A checklist for doctors for the assessment of patients and primary caregivers for home isolation must also be filled.

The committee will have to asses if there are an adequate number of single rooms (proportionate to family size) available to accommodate a coronavirus patient.

The committee has also been requested to consider the level of education of family, general understanding of coronavirus self-isolation requirements and maturity to comply with the instructions of the department.

It will be obligatory for home-isolated coronavirus patients to monitor their health condition and report to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on a daily basis. It will be mandatory for home-isolated COVID-19 patients to fulfill with the instructions of the department.

It will be mandatory for home-isolated coronavirus patients to obey with requirements of testing protocols (as and when) required by the caregivers/P&SHC Department.

Protocol for re-test of a patient and end of isolation:

The government has stated that confirmed cases, who are home isolated their repeat testing should be done on Day 10 of the isolation period. To end isolation, PCR should be negative twice and at least 24 hours apart.

For the positive test result on Day 10 (2nd positive), a repeat test is to be conducted on Day 05 after the 2nd positive test.

Where testing is not possible, WHO recommends that confirmed patients remain isolated for an additional two weeks after symptoms resolve.

With more than 11,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, Punjab leads the tally in the country with the most number of cases. Pakistan so far has reported more than 29,000 cases of the COVID-19 and more than 600 deaths.