HCMC – With permission given by the Ministry of Health, HCMC has piloted a plan to allow asymptomatic Covid-19 patients to stay at home, instead of sending them to hospitals.
The municipal Department of Health on July 13 issued an urgent dispatch detailing changes in the city’s strategy for coping with the spread of the virus which has infected 18,210 people by today afternoon, July 14.
Specifically, asymptomatic Covid-19 cases who are being treated at hospitals and have tested negative for Covid-19 or positive but with a low viral load will be released from hospital if their homes meet the necessary requirements. They will undergo RT-PCR tests on the 14th and 21st days of quarantine.
Infected medical workers with no symptoms can self-isolate at home and self-monitor their health provided that their homes meet the requirements. They must report to the local health authority on a daily basis.
These infected people will be monitored by the local medical agencies and their employers and must comply with anti-pandemic protocols.
Hotlines must be made available so that these patients can immediately report if they develop symptoms.
In extremely-high-risk areas, direct contacts of Covid-19 cases failing to meet self-isolation requirements will be sent to concentrated quarantine facilities. They will undergo RT-PCR tests on the seventh quarantine day, instead of the 14th day as decided previously. If the result is negative, they can return home for self-quarantine.
Direct contacts of Covid-19 cases in high-risk areas meeting the requirements of the Ministry of Health have been placed under home quarantine. However, their family members are not allowed to step out.
If those in direct contact with Covid-19 patients live in apartment buildings or boarding houses, these sites will be considered as centralized quarantine facilities. If the number of direct contacts of Covid-19 cases is high, some of them should be sent to centralized quarantine centers.
In high-risk areas, the houses of direct contacts of Covid-19 patients are not required to have a separate room for medical workers to check the quarantined person’s health and take his/her samples.
If all members of the family were in direct contact with Covid-19 cases, all of them will be quarantined at home and it is not required to have a separate room for each of them.
