Haryana: Mobile health teams to visit home isolated COVID-19 patients every alternate day

The Haryana government on September 18 issued new guidelines for home isolation care of COVID-19 patients in the state. The emphasis in the new guidelines is on in-person visits by the 'district home isolation monitoring team' on every alternate day. Around 60-70 per cent of coronavirus infected persons are in home isolation care', Additional Chief Secretary, Health Department, Rajeev Arora said. He said that as most no. of COVID-19 patients are in home isolation, there is a need to augment the home isolation policy to ensure that proper care and treatment is given to the patients.

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New guidelines for COVID-19 patients in home isolation care

 He added, "Asymptomatic and symptomatic patients, who are in home isolation care, usually are unable to follow the guidelines like staying in a separate room, a caregiver to look after the needs of the patient. Subsequently, the 'district home isolation monitoring team' will visit the patient on alternate days to monitor if the guidelines are being followed."

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Sharing further details of the new policy issued for COVID-19 patients, Cheif Executive Officer, Ayushman Bharat Haryana Health protection Authority, Ashok Kumar Meena, said the monitoring teams can check the number of patients on home isolation care from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal. Each field team will consist of one assistant medical officer (AMO), one auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) and one accredited social health activist (ASHA) worker. Mission Director, national health Mission, Haryana, Prabhjot Singh said the district home isolation team will decide whether the COVID-19 patient will stay in home isolation care or not. The team officials will be checking the vitals like the pulse, temperature, blood pressure and oxygen level of the patient. 

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Meena further said, "The monitoring field teams will make sure that separate washrooms are being used if the COVID-19 patient is co-morbid other than the vital parameters. After the inspection, the information of the patient will be shared with the nodal officer appointed at block-level and district-level."

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COVID-19 outbreak in Haryana 

The number of people getting affected by pandemic has been increasing continuously. As per the latest data shared by MOHFW, in the past 24 hours, 24 new cases and 24 deaths have been reported. The total number of active COVID-19 cases in Haryana is 21,014. So far, 81,690 people have successfully recovered from Coronavirus. 

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