A rising number of COVID-positive patients are asked to go home and home care their COVID illness due to hospitals in India running out of hospital beds, running out of oxygen, and there is no way the medical infrastructure can handle the overwhelming surges of masses at hospitals.
Before we start, a person first needs an indicator of whether they do indeed have COVID. One could to the RT-PCR test or the RAT test. Now, if a person does test positive, it can easily be treated at home and there is nothing to worry about. The recovery rates are high and the main thing is to be calm.
There is a simple preliminary test for coronavirus besides the usual fever, and other mild symptoms are checking oxygen levels, an oximeter could indicate any signs, but once again, it could be seasonal flu, so be calm.
While a doctor has suggested a coffee test where if you cannot smell or taste coffee, you probably have it, it is untrue because even with seasonal allergies and flu, people lose their sense of smell and taste.
Patients who are asymptomatic (without serious symptoms), with mild symptoms can tackle #COVID19 at home.
Anchor, Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor from NTDV shared a video explaining how COVID can be treated at home and have given a link to her video at the end and shared the following points of how to treat COVID below, with slight changes to her original video:
HOW TO CARE FOR COVID AT HOME:
The people who can be treated for COVID at home are:
A. COVID positive people who are asymptomatic meaning mild symptoms and fever and cough, sore throat, muscle pain, can get nausea, diarrhea, loss of taste. The new variants now have shortness of breath, if you don’t have shortness of breath, you are classified as a mild patient and thus can isolate.
Others with COVID who can isolate at home are those with moderate illness such as evidence of lower respiratory disease during imaging such as CT scan where the oxygen saturation is above 94 percent. If the oxygen saturation is below 94 percent, they would need hospitalization.
FLAG EMERGENCY AND GO TO THE HOSPITAL IF:
The CT scan of the lung is patchy
Suffer shortness of breath
Saturation is below 94%
TO TREAT COVID AT HOME
You must have:
1. A thermometer.
2. A pulse oximeter. (order it online or get it from the nearest chemist). Both these should be recorded at least twice every day taken a chart,
ESSENTIALS YOU MUST DO:
1. Take the medicines prescribed by the doctor.
2. Drink plenty of fluids which is excellent good recovery, flushing out the toxins, good hydration helps in recovery, and also do steam inhalations which are proving to be very effective.
3. Warm saline gargles (salt and water)
4. Constantly wash hands with soap and water
4. Wear a triple layer mask if one has COVID.
5. Discard the mask every 8 hours if have COVID.
6. Disinfect frequently touched surfaces if COVID.
7. Avoid any daytime naps as it can lead to sleeplessness at night.
8. Keep the doctor’s number at hand, keep updating the chart, keep sending it to them twice a day.
RED FLAGS, DANGER SIGNS WHEN YOU NEED HOSPITALIZATION:
1. Drop in oxygen level below 94 percent.
2. Slurred speech.
3. Weakness in limbs.
4. Difficulty in breathing.
5. Pain or pressure in the chest
6. Discoloration in lips, face, sometimes in nails and fingers. Every time it happens, let the doctor know and decide what is to be done.
HOW TO SELF ISOLATE:
1. Have separate rooms.
2. Have separate bathrooms (if possible).
3. The room that you are living in should have enough ventilation.
4. Do not share vessels, linen, keep all these items separately for the COVID positive patient, don’t let it mix up with other people in the house.
5. Allot one person in the family who is going to be the caregiver, who will have a double mask on or an n95 mask and always maintain a 1-meter distance from the patient when giving food, medicines, and administering other care.
So these are some of the helpful suggestions one must keep in mind if treating COVID at home.
Also, please always remember that prevention is better than cure. It is wiser to be careful now and avoid COVID entering your door.
SOME GREAT HELPFUL PREVENTIVES ARE:
1. Mask at all times. Coronavirus needs a host in order to thrive. without a host, it will weaken and die off. COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 could survive for approximately 3 hours without a host and on not finding a host, it will die. It breeds when it enters a human respiratory system, so don’t give it a doorway to enter. People are not masking anymore, walking in market places, half the people are masking and half are not. This is not being fair to others too.
2. Maintain distancing and wash hands. Distance does not allow the noxious virus to find a host easily and weakens and dies.
3. Vitamin D in the form of cholecalciferol (once a week sachet, ask your doctor for the dosing) has been shown to build resistance to fight the virus, along with zinc, vitamin C, vitamin E, and other vitamins and other natural remedies to strengthen your immune system such as salt gargles, turmeric (haldi) gargles (the curcumin exhibited antiviral activity according to studies)
So let us fight the war against COVID-19 like true warriors.
Also sharing from Tata Digital Health:
Covid Medical kit Required at home:
1. Paracetamol
2. Betadine for mouthwash and gargle
3. Vitamin C and D3
5. B complex
6. Vapour+ capsules for steam
7. Oximeter
8. Oxygen cylinder (for emergency only)
9. Arogya Setu app
10. Breathing Exercises
COVID in Three Stages:
1. COVID only in the nose – recovery time is half a day. (Steam inhaling), vitamin C. Usually no fever. Asymptomatic.
2. COVID in the throat – sore throat, recovery time 1 day (hot water gargle, warm water to drink, if temp then paracetamol. Vitamin C, B-complex. If severe then antibiotic.
3. COVID in lungs- coughing and breathlessness 4 to 5 days. (Vitamin C, B complex, hot water gargle, oximeter, paracetamol, cylinder if severe, lot of liquid required, deep breathing exercise.
The stage when to approach hospital:
Monitor the oxygen level. If it goes near 43 (normal 98-100) then you need an oxygen cylinder. If available at home, then no hospital else admit.
Stay healthy, Stay Safe!
Please forward to your contacts in India. You never know who it may help.
Tata Group has started this good initiative, they are providing free doctors consultation online through chats. This facility is started for you so that you need not go out for doctors and you will be safe at home.
Below is the link, I request every one to take benefit of this facility.
https://www.tatahealth.com/online-doctor-consultation/general-physician
This is Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor’s video from NDTV on Twitter explaining how COVID can be treated at home.
#FYI | Asymptomatic and people with mild symptoms can tackle #COVID19 at home
NDTV’s Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor explains pic.twitter.com/BspwugyIr0
— NDTV (@ndtv) April 21, 2021
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