Pulse oximeters for all Covid patients recovering at home

GURUGRAM: The health department has decided to distribute pulse oximeters to Covid-19 patients recovering at home so that they can monitor their blood oxygen saturation levels continuously.

Many Covid patients are asymptomatic or develop symptoms at a very late stage and deteriorate suddenly, leaving no time for medical intervention. An oximeter will show a drop in oxygen saturation levels if the lungs get infected, even if there aren’t any symptoms. It gives a patient crucial time to reach a hospital.

Patients in home isolation are not under continuous monitoring, like in a hospital, which makes an oximeter an important device. The health department will distribute 2,000 pulse oximeters. The Delhi government had last month announced a similar move for all home isolation patients.

Dr Virender Yadav, Gurugram chief medical officer, said, “We will distribute 2,000 pulse oximeters that the patients will have to return on recovery. This will help them assess their condition on a daily basis and inform us immediately in case of an emergency.”

Rapid response teams have already received 200 oximeters and the rest will follow soon. He added that the department is aiming to conduct 2,000 antigen tests daily. “We get less than 1% critical patients every day and are trying to reduce the number further. Our teams are also coordinating with patients daily to monitor their health status,” he said.

The department also started free counselling sessions for home isolation patients on Wednesday.

“We have initiated two sessions from 11am to 1pm and from 5pm to 7pm. Doctors are available to answer queries. We are also distributing booklets in containment zones to spread Covid awareness,” he said.

Meanwhile, 116 patients tested Covid positive on Wednesday, taking the city’s tally to 5,463. One death was reported, taking the toll to 92. On the same day, 117 people also recovered, bringing the number of active cases down to 1,293.