With the view of allotting more beds and facilities for the people who are in requirement of the immediate treatment in the hospitals, the state government of Tamil Nadu has issued an order of letting the people who have mild symptoms and who are asymptomatic for COVID-19 to have an option to stay under home isolation at their respective homes, instead of being isolated at the hospitals.

According to the reports, the state government has issued the order on Tuesday based on the proposal of the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and it also has rolled out the guidelines over home quarantine for very mild and asymptomatic cases for COVID-19. The hospitals in Chennai have already started shifting such patients from its premises to the quarantine facilities so that the medical units can accommodate the people who need treatment. 

Hospitals are currently isolating the virus affected patients, the patients who are yet to receive the results, and people who are suspected to have COVID-19 symptoms under their arms with the view of breaking the transmission chain while the asymptomatic patients can remain under home quarantine. The government has put forth the eligibility for a person to get home quarantined.

According to the government, the patient should be assigned clinically by the treating medical officer as he/she is a very mild/ asymptomatic case and they should have adequate facilities at their homes for self-isolation including a single and separate room with an attached and separate toilet. The home-quarantined patient should have a caregiver and the caregiver and rest of the family members must adhere to the protocol recommended by the treating medical officer. 

The communication between the hospital and the caregiver should stay active and essential during the tenure of the isolation and the patient and caregiver must be given with vitamin tablets for ten days and they should consume herbal drinks such as nilavembu kudineer and Kabasura kudineer. The patient should go through the self-monitoring of the health and they should report to the hospital immediately when they either develop or deteriorate the symptoms. 

The government has directed them to install the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile phones and they must keep the application active and they should also wear a triple-layer medical mask during the isolation and these masks must be scrapped every eight hours and the patient should ensure to disinfect the masks before getting rid of them.

While under home quarantine, the patient should stay off from the elderly people and people who have co-morbid conditions and they should refrain from moving out of the house. In case the patient and the caregiver develop symptoms like cough, fever, breathing difficulty, seizures, continuous pain in the chest, and continuous symptoms beyond 72 hours, they must immediately approach the medical facility. 

The patient can be released from home isolation after the medical officer confirms and certifies that he/she is cured of the symptoms and they would go through testing following which, if no symptoms are shown, they would be declared as recovered from the infection. As of Monday, the state has reported 2,662 patients who are under isolation wards in the hospitals after suspecting to have symptoms for COVID-19.