Bhubaneswar: The state government Monday changed the COVID-19 treatment guidelines allowing home isolation for asymptomatic patients and those with milder symptoms who do not have co-morbidities.
Announcing this, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said the state government took this decision as a majority of COVID-19 patients have mild symptoms and do not need hospitalization. He said the change followed the receipt of new guidelines issued by the Centre.
“We have new norms on COVID-19 treatment from the WHO and the Centre for mild and asymptomatic cases. We have decided to allow home isolation of asymptomatic and mild patients in urban areas. This will also include divisional, sub-divisional and block headquarter towns,” Tripathy said.
He said the state survey of COVID 19 patients has revealed new facts which propelled the government to take such a decision. “Our survey claims that many asymptomatic persons who stay in hospitals developed psychological stress. Many also take self-medication to suppress the development of symptoms,” he said, adding the decision can also help the patients reduce chances of secondary infections developed from hospitals.
The new norms, however, bar certain categories of patients who cannot avail the facility of home isolation. “HIV patients, transplant patients, cancer patients, elderly patients with co-morbidities, lung, liver and heart disease patients cannot opt for home isolation if tested positive,” he said. The government allowed corporate houses and other institutions to keep asymptomatic patients on their campuses (in isolation) if members from their intuitions test positive.
Civic bodies, ECoR, Jharsuguda airport, all ports, PSUs, CISF, BSF, CRPF, NDRF, Odisha Police and all universities, religious institutions, RWAs and NGOs can keep their employees on campus. An adult caregiver will be entrusted with the task to act as a bridge between the government and the patient. It has also been mandated to ensure adequate online training for bio-medical management in such situations.