HOME CARE AN OPTION FOR MILD COVID-19 CASES, SAYS DOCTOR
With hospitals and medical facilities at critical capacity due to the rise in COVID-19 infections, a pediatric infectious disease expert said home care could be an option for suspected or confirmed patients.
“Because the health-care system is extremely challenged, and because the majority of the cases are expected to be mild, home care needs to be an option for our family members [or] for people we know who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19,” Dr. Anna Ong-Lim said in a webinar led by the Sanctuario de San Antonio Parish on Saturday.
Lim noted that when the medical community called for a “time out” in August last year as cases rose, “it took a fairly long time for the numbers to be controlled.” At that time, the average number of daily cases was under 5,000.
“If you will compare this peak to the current peak, you would know that what we had before was a fraction of the current problem,” she said, adding that “it might not be surprising for our numbers to reach a million very soon.”
As a result, Lim said most of the 159 treatment centers that could cater to COVID-19 infections had “no more room to accept any more patients.”
According to government data, health-care facilities in Metro Manila have already reached a 67.4-percent bed occupancy rate.
The doctor noted, however, that more than 90 percent of active cases now were mild, while only a small fraction could be classified as moderate, severe or critical cases.
Citing guidelines released by the World Health Organization in August 2020, Lim said that an adult or child with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 —whether asymptomatic, mild or moderate—could consider home care when in-patient care was unavailable or unsafe.
According to the guidelines, the decision to place a patient under home care should be based on three factors: a clinical evaluation of the COVID-19 patient, an evaluation of the home setting and the ability to monitor the clinical evolution of the patient.
Lim said patients under home care should be in a separate room with good airflow. They should also have their own bathroom to minimize their contact with other members of the household.