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To ease burden on hospitals, Telangana govt plans home treatment kits for Covid-19 patients
The decision was taken by Telangana medical and health minister Eatala Rajender at a meeting with health department officials on Friday.
With suspected Covid-19 patients flooding both government and private hospitals for admission and treatment, the Telangana government has come up with an idea to encourage people with mild symptoms to undergo treatment in their respective homes by supplying home isolation kits free of cost.
The decision was taken by Telangana medical and health minister Eatala Rajender at a meeting with health department officials on Friday. “Though there are sufficient numbers of beds available in government hospitals for treating Covid-19 patients, we are advising Covid-19 positive patients having mild symptoms not to come to the hospitals but get treatment in their respective homes,” the minister said.
In a bid to persuade patients with mild symptoms to go in for home-quarantine, the medical and health department will deliver these “home isolation kits” at their doorstep, so that they could get the treatment as per the prescription attached with the kit.
Each kit comprises 34 Vitamin-C tablets, 17 Zinc tablets, 17 B-Complex capsules, six cloth masks, a sanitiser, a liquid hand wash, two pairs of gloves and a bottle of sodium hypochlorite solution.
“Besides, there will be a booklet comprising details of what the patient should and should not do during the 17-day isolation period. If necessary, the doctor who tests the patient will also prescribe necessary antibiotics, anti-histamine and antacid tablets to the patient,” an official in the medical and health department said.
The kit also has the details of the local health centre along with the contact numbers of medical officers, Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and ASHA workers and also that of municipal officials.
According to an estimate, out of the total number of 12,600-odd active Covid-19 positive cases in the state, around 10,000 patients having mild symptoms have been undergoing treatment at home. “Even if there is more than one patient at home, all of them would get the home isolation kits,” the official said.
He said most of these patients are cured with these medicines in home isolation. If they develop any moderate to severe symptoms, they can call up the local medical or civic authorities of ANMs or even dial the toll-free number, so that they could be immediately shifted to the hospital, he said.
The Andhra Pradesh government, too, is said to be planning a similar scheme of supplying home isolation kits to Covid-19 patients undergoing treatment at home for mild symptoms.
