G.O.Rt.No.226, Date: 01-04-2020- Guidelines for Home isolation.
ORDER:
World Health Organization (WHO) has declared recent Novel Corona
Virus Disease (COVID-19) affecting all the regions of the world
as Pandemic. In this context, Government of Andhra Pradesh has
taken several measures to strengthen the surveillance for
Containment, Control and Prevention of COVID-19 including
declaring a “Lock down”.
2. Where Government is satisfied that, any foreign returnee
or his/her contact or symptomatic person showing COVID-19 symptoms
like fever, dry cough, sore throat and/or breathlessness should
follow home isolation to prevent spread of COVID-19 in community
or as advised by a Medical Officer.
3. The following guidelines are issued for home
isolation to be followed by all foreign returnees or his/her contact
or any symptomatic person showing COVID-19 symptoms:
I. Guidelines for Home Isolation: Home Isolation is
applicable to all foreign returnees or their contacts or
symptomatic showing COVID-19 symptoms like fever, dry cough, sore
throat and/or breathlessness.
II. Definition of foreign returnee: Any persons coming from
outside India on or after 10th Feb. 2020 or any COVID-19 affected
areas where local and community transmission is evident or a
person coming from focal clusters arising from a travel
related/unrelated case where cluster containment strategy is
adopted.
III. Definition of a Contact:
1. A contact is defined as a healthy person that has been
in such association with an infected person or a contaminated
environment as to have exposed and is therefore at a higher risk
of developing the disease.
2. A person living in the same household where a COVID-19
positive person is living. 2. A person having had direct
physical contact with a COVID-19 positive person.
3. A person having had direct physical contact with a
COVID-19 positive person’s infectious secretion without recommended
personal protective equipment (PPE) or a person with a possible
breach of PPE.
4. A person who was in a closed environment or has had face
to face contact with a COVID-19 positive person at a distance of within
1 metre including air travel, train, bus or any form of travel.
The epidemiological link may have occurred within a 14‐day period
before the onset of illness in the case under consideration.
IV. Definition of Symptomatic: A Person who is showing symptoms of COVID-19 like fever, dry cough, sore throat and/or breathlessness.
V. Instructions for home isolation: Any person(s) suggestive of 2019-nCoV, should for at least 14 days:
1. Stay home, preferably isolate himself / herself in a
separate & wellventilated room preferably with an
attached/separate toilet. If there is a single toilet to use, it
should be cleaned with 1% hypochlorite or lysol solution after
every use.
2. If another family member needs to stay in the same room,
it’s advisable to maintain a distance of at least 1 meter between
the two.
3. Needs to stay away from elderly people, pregnant women,
children and persons with co-morbidities within the household.
4. Avoid common areas frequented by other members of the family.
5. Avoid close contact with others. If inevitable, always maintain atleast two metres distance.
6. Avoid meeting visitors.
7. Under no circumstances attend any social/religious gathering e.g. wedding, condolences, etc.
8. He/She should also follow the under mentioned public health measures at all times.
a. Avoid frequent touching of face
b. Avoid hand shaking and wash hands frequently with soap and
water. In case of non-availability of soap and water, commercially
available hand rubs can be used.
c. Take plenty of fluids.
d. Follow cough etiquettes.
e. Cover mouth and nose with a tissue/ handkerchief when
coughing or sneezing; In case tissue/handkerchief is not available
cough/ sneeze onto your upper arm flex or shoulder; coughing/
sneezing directly onto hands should not be done.
f. Turn away from others when coughing or sneezing.
g. Do not spit/blow nose here and there, use a water
filled receptacle for collecting sputum, thereby minimizing aerosol
generation.
h. Avoid sharing household items e.g. dishes, drinking glasses,
cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with other
people at home.
i. Wear a surgical mask at all the times. The mask should be
changed every 6-8 hours and disposed-off. Disposable masks are
never to be reused.
j. Masks used by patients / care givers/ close contacts
during home care should be disinfected using ordinary bleach
solution (5%) or sodium hypochlorite solution (1%) and then disposed
of either by burning or deep burial or pack in double bag
sprinkle bleaching powder and seal bag and handover to waste
disposal agency for safe disposal.
k. If symptoms appear (cough/fever/difficulty in breathing), he/she should immediately call “104”.
VI. Instructions for the family members of persons under home isolation:
1. Only an assigned family member should be tasked with taking care of the such person.
2. Avoid shaking the soiled linen or direct contact with skin.
3. Use disposable gloves when cleaning the surfaces or handling soiled linen.
4. Wash hands with soap water for minimum 20 seconds after removing gloves.
5. In case the person being quarantined becomes symptomatic,
all his close contacts will be home isolated (for 14 days) and
followed up for an additional 14 days or till the report of
such case turns out negative on lab testing.
VII. Environmental sanitation:
1. Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces in the
quarantined person’s room (e.g. bed frames, tables etc.) daily with
1% Sodium Hypochlorite Solution.
2. Clean and disinfect toilet surfaces daily with regular household bleach solution/phenolic disinfectants.
3. Clean the clothes and other linen used by the person separately using common household detergent and dry.
VIII. Duration of home isolation: The home isolation
period is for 14 days from contact with a confirmed case or
earlier if a suspect case (of whom the index person is a
contact) turns out negative on laboratory testing.
4. All the District Collectors, Joint Collectors, Police
Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, District Medical &
Health Officers, Municipal Commissioners, Sub-Collectors, RDOs,
Tahsildars and MPDOs are hereby instructed to implement these
guidelines.
