COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms encouraged to get treated at home —expert

Patients with COVID-19 but have mild symptoms may get treated at home amid the overwhelmed capacity of hospitals, an infectious disease expert said Sunday.

"Ang panawagan, 'yung mga mild infections huwag na dalhin sa hospital. Doon na lang sa bahay i-isolate ninyo if there are rooms na puwedeng i-isolate na mayroong ganoong karamdaman," San Lazaro Hospital's infectious disease specialist Dr. Rontgene Solante said over Dobol B TV.

(The appeal is for those with mild infections not to go to hospitals anymore. They can just get isolated at home. If there are rooms, you can isolate them there.)

Specifically, patients with cough or fever may get treated at home by drinking water and the appropriate medicine, he said.

"Kapag mild, ubo lang, lagnat tapos walang hingal, tignan mo kung walang hingal kasi ibig sabihin puwede na lang sa bahay. Bigyan ng eksaktong fluid rehydration, pag-inom ng tubig, pagkain at obserbahan at mino-monitor. Kung nababahala sa lagnat, bigyan ng paracetamol," said Solante.

(If the patient experiences mild symptoms such as cough or fever and no shortness of breath, it means they can just get treated at home. Give them enough water, food and continuously observe them. If they get fever, give them paracetamol.)

But Solante said a medical professional's assistance is needed if the patient is already experiencing shortness of breath.

Solante said treatment of severe patients require mechanical ventilators, which is only available at hospitals.

According to Department of Health (DOH) data on Saturday, 98.7% of the 784,043 total COVID-19 cases in the country are asymptomatic or mild cases.

Only 0.5% are severe, 0.5% are critical and 0.30% are moderate, said DOH.

Severe cases sharing ICU rooms 

Meanwhile, Solante said they will need to reallocate their COVID-19 bed capacity in San Lazaro Hospital as they are already overwhelmed with patients.

"'Yung situation namin ngayon, overwhelming dahil 'yung mga pasyente natin ngayon talagang hirap kami kumuha ng bakante ngayon dahil talagang we have to allocate the bed especially for the moderate, severe to critical (cases)," he said.

(Our situation now is overwhelming because it is hard to find vacant rooms for patients. We aneed to allocate beds for moderate, and severe to critical cases.)

Solante also revealed that they are allocating about four critical cases in a room at San Lazaro Hospital, which is a COVID-19 referral hospital.

"Majority sa mga pasyente na dumadating sa amin, around 70% severe to critical 'yan. So makikita mo 'yan we only have 10 ICU beds, and these patients need ICU care. So ang ginagawa namin, sa isang room may 4 na critical para lalong ma-accommodate ang mga pasyenteng dumadating," said Solante. 

(Majority of our patients, 70%, are severe to critical so they need ICU care. We only have 10 ICU beds, and these patients need ICU care. What we did was, per room, there are four patients so we can accommodate more cases.)

As early as March 10, the Manila-based hospital already reported full capacity for its ICU (intensive care unit) beds. —KG, GMA News