COVID-19: Wuhan's doctor suggests against home quarantine for patients

Mandatory isolation of people with mild symptoms in special centres rather than their homes and wearing masks are essential to contain the spread of coronavirus, said the head of a hospital involved in handling the public health crisis in Wuhan, China’s epicentre of COVID-19 outbreak. Wang Xinghuan, the head of the Wuhan Leishenshan, emphasised the need of wearing masks especially in the cities that are witnessing a huge spike in the number of coronavirus cases.

Wang told the local media that some medics working in the non-COVID-19 department got infected by coronavirus because none of them wore masks at the early stage of the outbreak. He emphasised on the efficacy of the masks saying people who came in contact with COVID-19 patients didn’t get infected.

The head said that the source of infection, the route of transmission and the susceptible population are the critical factors and one of them should be completely controlled to contain the spread of the virus. He added that people with mild symptoms should immediately move to designated quarantine centres to cut the transmission.

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Rise in imported cases

While China has been able to contain the virus under strict lockdowns, the drastic rise in new imported cases has raised fears of the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak. China’s National Health Commission has reported 82,160 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 3,341 overall death toll in the country with a clear decline in the rate of infection. However, the imported coronavirus cases have risen sharply along with a worrying surge in asymptomatic cases. 

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Residents have reportedly been allowed to leave the city only with a special authorisation that requires a mandatory smartphone application that provides for government surveillance showing the travellers are healthy and have been in recent contact with anyone infected by the deadly virus. With the rise in the number of imported coronavirus cases, China has tightened the border control measures in order to curb such cases.

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(Image Credit: AP)