China releases guideline on home-based care for COVID-19 patients

BEIJING - The Chinese government on Thursday released a guideline on home treatment for asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 cases.

According to the guideline, COVID-19 patients who are asymptomatic or exhibit mild symptoms without serious underlying diseases, can be treated at home.

Patients who have stable underlying medical conditions and who do not need hospitalization, may also recover from COVID-19 at home, read the guideline released by the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19.

Where conditions permit, the home-based patients should live in relatively separate rooms and use their own restrooms, the guideline noted.

The guideline required grassroots medical institutions to incorporate homebound COVID-19 patients into grid-based management.

The guideline also called for local governments to set up channels for fast transfer of patients between upper-level hospitals and communities.

Homebound patients should self-monitor their health conditions, said the guideline, adding that they should call for an ambulance or drive to hospitals if suffering breathing difficulties or other serious health issues.

The guideline pointed out that the quarantine period ends for homebound patients if all the following requirements are met -- their symptoms improve significantly or if they have no obvious symptoms, they test negative in antigen self-test applications and take two consecutive nucleic acid tests with the cycle threshold values not smaller than 35.