The Ministry of Health & Welfare has published the Guidelines for home Quarantine. The guidelines define Quarantine as ‘a period of time when a person or animal having an infectious disease is kept away from other people or animals.
A Contact is defined as a healthy person that has been in such association with an infected person or a contaminated environment as to have exposed and is therefore at a higher risk of developing disease.
A contact in context of COVID-19 is:
- A person living in the same household as a COVID-19 case
- A person having had direct physical contact with a COVID-19 case or his/her infectious secretions without recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) or with possible breach of PPE.
- A person who was in a closed environment or had face to face contact with a COVID-19 case at a distance of withing metre including air travel.
- The epidemiological link may have occurred within a 14-day period before the onset of illness in the case under consideration.
The home quarantined person should:
- Stay in a well-ventilated single-room preferably with an attached/separate toilet.
- Needs to stay away from elderly people, pregnant women, children and persons with co-morbidities within the household. Ristrict his/her movement within the house. Under no circumstances attend any social/religious gathering e.g. wedding, condolence, etc.
Environmental sanitation plays really very big role
- Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces in the quarantined person’s room
- Clean and disinfect toilet surfaces daily with regular household bleach solution/phenolic disinfectants
- Clean the clothes and other linen used by the person separately using common household detergent and dry.