Who should undergo home quarantine

As Filipinos fear for their health amid the continued spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Department of Health (DOH) released guidelines on how to conduct home quarantine and who should undergo the two-week isolation process.

The DOH said that the following people should undergo home quarantine, according to a Wednesday report on 24 Oras by Raffy Tima:

•     People with history of travel to countries affected by the COVID-19 outbreak
•     People who came in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case in the past 14 days
•     People who are experiencing fever and other symptoms of respiratory illness but have no history of travel to COVID-19-affected countries or contact to known cases

The DOH said people who will undergo home quarantine, called persons under monitoring (PUM), cannot leave their houses until they have received a certification from local health officials stating that they have completed 14 days of isolation.

The room in which a PUM will be confined must be well-ventilated and have its own bathroom.

Other people living in the same household as a PUM must also stay at least one meter away from the patient.

The PUM must wear a surgical mask if he or she lives with other people, but the other individuals in the household need not wear masks.

Items that are touched and used by the PUM must also be regularly disinfected, including the bathroom.

Those who will disinfect items used by the PUM must wear gloves and clean their bodies afterward.

Food, meanwhile, must be placed on a tray and left at the door of the PUM’s room.

The Philippines has 49 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the DOH. —Julia Mari Ornedo/LDF, GMA News