More and more people suffer from COVID-19 at home - mild symptoms of coronavirus infection can be treated symptomatically. However, are people who live with someone with COVID-19 safe? What should home care for a person suffering from COVID-19 look like and how to care for the sick person so as not to get infected with the coronavirus yourself?
Having COVID-19at home is a serious challenge, especially for people who live in a block of flats with their family. In such a situation, it is difficult to maintain the recommended isolation so that none of the household members becomes infected with the coronavirus.
People suffering from COVID-19 who do not have the conditions to be ill at home (the reason may be, for example, that someone in the household is chronically ill or has reduced immunity) may be referred by a doctor to an isolation facility, where will recover under the care of qualified personnel.
Others with mild COVID-19 symptoms may become ill at home. But what does such a sick person mean to other household members? What does home care for a person infected with the coronavirus look like? What safety measures must be followed, how to prepare the sick person's meals, how to solve the issue of changing clothes and bedding, washing, visits to the toilet?
What else do you need to remember and what rules should be followed when caring for people with COVID-19 at home?
Patient with COVID-19: who can be treated at home?
According to the guidelines of experts, patients with a confirmed result of coronavirus infection who have a mild or moderate course of the disease can be treated at home. These people are subjected to the so-called insulation in domestic conditions.
More and more COVID patients at home - a typical course: 2-3 days of fever, severe weakness, muscle pain, drying out, swollen mucous membranes, sinus / ear pain, loss of smell / taste around 5-7 days, lack of appetite . If no improvement after 5-7 days, a cough, shortness of breath, dizziness are added … - Pawel Grzesiowski (@grzesiowski_p) November 1, 2022
A doctor who will refer such a patient to isolation at home, writes out a sick note (if the sick person is working) and places the relevant information in the salon.gov.pl system, through which it is sent to the local sanitary and epidemiological station . Sanepid then initiates the appropriate procedurethe procedure, he asks, among others o a list of people with whom the patient had contact.
Isolation in a patient who does not have COVID-19 symptoms lasts 10 days, while in people with symptoms of coronavirus infection, it depends on the course of the disease. Termination of isolation may occur no sooner than 13 days after the symptoms appear (at the discretion of the family doctor who is caring for the patient).
Until then, a person suffering from COVID-19 cannot leave their place of residence, and should not contact other household members. It is worth knowing that household members who live with a person suffering from COVID-19 are quarantined, which means that they cannot leave their place of residence, even to do shopping, and they cannot contact the sick person (except to provide necessary care).
Patient with COVID-19 at home - general recommendations for the patient
A primary recommendation for someone with COVID-19 who recovers in their own bed is to monitor their he alth. The patient should take the temperature twice a day, check the oxygen saturation (using a device called a pulse oximeter) and measure the blood pressure.
The Chief Sanitary Inspectorate also recommends that people suffering from COVID-19 at home follow specific safety rules.
Safety rules for people with COVID-19 at home:
- try to stay in the same room around the clock - one where there are no other household members
- open the window frequently
- do not enter other rooms, especially if someone is in them
- If you have to leave the room and go to the bathroom, wear a mask
- communicate with the environment by phone or communicator
- do not take things out of the room you are in
- before leaving the toilet, disinfect the toilet bowl and wash your hands thoroughly
- Sanepid recommends to use the bathroom as the last member of the household - preferably in the evening, when everyone has gone to sleep. Wash the devices you use after you and do not leave your towel in the bathroom
- put your rubbish in a plastic bag - when it is full, just put it outside the door and have it thrown into the trash can by another person.
- According to the recommendations of the He alth and Safety Department, cutlery, plates and glasses should be intended only for the sick person: after using them, put them out of the door. Someone in the household should wash them thoroughly - preferably in a dishwasher at a minimum temperature of 60 degrees C - and put them at the door of your room.
Home care for people suffering from COVID-19 - general recommendations for caregivers
Since the coronavirus spreads primarily via droplets, maybeAlso, be on everyday objects, and even be in ventilation, certain rules - primarily for their own safety - should also be observed by the household members, especially people who have contact with objects used by the sick or with the sick themselves.
If you are caring for someone with COVID-19:
- do not approach it closer than 1.5 meters - this is the minimum safe distance recommended by experts. Therefore, a person suffering from COVID-19 should not be hugged, stroked on the head or held by the hand.
- if you are in the same room as the sick person, put on the mask - after leaving the room, the reusable mask must be washed, and the disposable mask must be discarded
- turn off air conditioning, do not use air purifiers or fans
- wash your hands often with warm water and soap - do it every time you come into contact with things that the sick person may have touched, such as laundry, waste, dirty dishes, but also, for example, toilet door handles.
Home care for people suffering from COVID-19: meals
A person suffering from COVID-19 should eat 3-4 light meals a day and drink at least 1.5 liters of fluids. However, it is not easy to comply with this recommendation, as people infected with the coronavirus usually do not have an appetite, they also lose their taste and smell, which makes everything taste like paper.
The body needs strength to fight the disease - that's why the sick person has to eat, even small portions, but relatively regularly.
Meals for a person suffering from COVID-19 should be easy to digest, so when cooking, avoid spicy, spicy, fried or fatty dishes. Delicate meat with vegetables, steamed fish, chicken stew with rice, classic, strengthening broth - these dishes are usually appreciated even among people who have lost their sense of smell and taste. What to give a sick person to drink? Still water, weak tea, compote or juices are best.
Avoid coffee: it has a slight diuretic effect and can therefore dehydrate you - meanwhile, someone with COVID-19 must drink a lot, especially if they have a fever.
How to solve the issue of serving meals, if personal contact is inadvisable? The sick person should eat them wherever he is: it is best to leave them for him without contact, at the door, and then take the dirty dishes (wearing gloves). If the sick person is weakened, a table for eating in bed will be a good idea - when placing and picking up the dishes, remember to have a mask and gloves.
Home care for people suffering from COVID-19 - laundry
A person suffering from COVID-19 must only use their own towels and keep them with toiletries in the roomhe is in isolation. It is also recommended that towels are changed daily and bed linen and pajamas are changed every two days.
- Dirty bed linen, pajamas, towels must be put in a plastic bag in the room, and when it is full - put it out the door.
- Items used by someone with COVID-19 must not be put in the laundry: they must be washed at home.
- Sanepid recommends that the things of a person infected with coronavirus should be washed separately, without the clothes of other household members, and put into the washing machine directly from the bag (without touching them).
- It is good if the patient uses clothes that can be washed at 60 degrees C, as the recommended washing temperature is not less than 60 degrees C (or higher, if it is allowed for the fabric being washed).
- Washing alone should take at least 40 minutes, so do not run eco-washing programs.
- You cannot wash in ecological agents, e.g. washing nuts - detergent is required for washing, because, as research has proven, detergents neutralize the coronavirus by tearing its shell.
- Hands must be washed or disinfected after loading the washing machine.
Home care for people suffering from COVID-19 - cleaning
Cleaning is also an important issue. Used tissues, medicine packages, papers, etc. - all of this has to go somewhere, and as it was touched by a person infected with coronavirus, it requires proper treatment. The rules are that a person suffering from COVID-19 should pack all waste into a plastic bag, and when this is full, put it in front of the room door, from where one of the household members, equipped with a mask and rubber gloves, will pack them in a second bag.
After removing the gloves, throw them away and wash or disinfect your hands.
What to do with the garbage if the household members living with the patient are in quarantine? The regulations do not specify this: the he alth department only has advice to ask for their friends, family or social welfare to be taken to the container by e-mail or by phone, and then put them out the door so that everything can be done without contact.
If you need to vacuum the room in the sick room, it is best to do it when he goes to the bathroom - the person vacuuming should be wearing a mask.
Home care for people suffering from coronavirus - surface disinfection
When caring for someone with COVID-19, you need to be aware that the virus can be found not only in the room where the patient is, but also on any surface that he could touch - as well as where it came with the droplets discharge when coughing or has been accidentally transferred to the hands of others, for examplehousehold members.
That is why several times a day you should disinfect (wearing rubber gloves) all touch surfaces such as door handles, handles of the refrigerator, kettle or cupboards, toilets, bathroom fittings, table tops, light switches, as well as everyday items such as a telephone or the TV remote control.
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