Amid Covid spike, home isolation brings solace

New Delhi: After the recent spike in new Covid-19 cases in the city, the number of people recovering in home isolation has crossed 20,000. All asymptomatic patients and those with mild symptoms are required to stay at home under the monitoring of health officials. The recovery rate for home treatment is over 99% because of the strong and scrupulously implemented monitoring mechanism and the psychological comfort that the home environs gives the infected. Only 1.9% of the 1.96 lakh patients who were in home isolation have so far been moved to a hospital. In the last 30 days, not a single death has been reported of anyone in home isolation.

There are 20,093 active Covid patients currently in home isolation, the highest number, 4,418, in South West district and the fewest, 501, in North East. On Friday, 548 patients were asked to go into home isolation in South West district, followed by 393 in North West, 317 in South East, 312 in East, 311 in West, and 297 in South. The numbers are likely to rise, the previous highest tally for home isolation cases being 19,231 on September 21.
Nearly 3,000 new Covid-positive people were asked to look after themselves in their homes on Friday — the day the city reported 5,891 cases for a single-day high. “It does not mean that 3,000 out of 5,891 patients were put into home isolation,” explained an official. “Home isolation is recommended only after checking for symptoms and other official requirements.”

The official said that quarantine treatment had been a very successful mechanism to fight the coronavirus and had helped over 99% people to defeat Covid at home. “The demand for home isolation is huge. Even those not fulfilling all the eligibility criteria for home isolation request the district authorities to allow them treatment at home,” the official said.

The high demand for home isolation — and 4,000 people recovering at home every day — has helped prevent undue strain on the health infrastructure created to cope with the pandemic. Delhi has over 16,000 Covid beds available in hospitals and special care centres, and around 40% of the hospital beds are occupied and 60% of the existing ventilators in use.
This surplus in the medical facilities is due to the efficacy of home management of Covid. In the last 10 days, the number of patients in home quarantine has witnessed a steep rise. On October 20, there were 14,046 patients seeing out Covid at home, but this increased by over 6,000 in 10 days.

The daily health monitoring of patients isolated at home is handled by a private agency, whose trained nurses call the infected people every day. They monitor the vitals of the patients and keep the district health authorities informed about what they recommend for each patient daily. In case a patient needs shifting to hospital or a Covid care centre, the authorities are immediately informed and arrangements made. The government gives free oximeters to all patients who fight Covid at home to enable them to monitor their oxygen saturation levels and seek assistance in case the oxygen levels drop to below the accepted level.