Home quarantine tests positive: Why patients are happy

Jasjeev.Gandhiok@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:16.06.2020

For Deepa Gupta and her husband, Umesh Kumar Gupta, who both tested positive for Covid-19 in the first week of June, home quarantine was suggested because of their mild symptoms though the family was apprehensive of the care they would get at home.

Ten days into isolation at home, the family is appreciative of the way Delhi government is managing such patients. A doctor calls them three times a day and the subdivisional magistrate’s office makes daily enquiries too. Unable to step out of their house, they are grateful for phone calls asking about assistance in delivery of groceries and essentials.

Deepa, 55, and her 59-yearold husband live in Mayur Vihar. After a dog bite in May she visited the hospital a number of times for her antirabies injections. On May 25, after her third injection trip, Deepa developed a fever. “I thought the 99-100 degrees Fahrenheit temperature was a reaction to the rabies injections. Then on May 29, my husband too got fever and we felt there had to be something more than mere fever involved,” she told TOI on Monday.

The couple got tested on June 1 and got the results two days later. “At 11pm on June 3, we discovered we had Covid-19 and could not sleep,” said Deepa. “The doctor had already suggested medicines in case the results were positive. We took the prescribed vitamin C, B complex and Crocin 650 on June 4 and stayed indoors. On June 5, a team from the SDM’s office arrived and verified our details before putting up a quarantine poster outside our house. They asked us to remain in home quarantine till June 22.”

With Covid-designated hospitals — both private and government — straining under the load, Delhi government decided that all mild cases should be sent into quarantine at homes, with experts asked to monitor and enquire regularly about each case. When the Guptas downloaded the Aarogya Setu app, they found their names already listed as positive cases. The couple was instructed to stay away from each other, not to leave home and to rest as much as possible. The municipal corporation disinfected their apartment and its surroundings.

“Of the three calls we get daily, two are automated ones. But a doctor phones every evening to check our vitals and ascertain whether the symptoms have hardened,” disclosed Deepa. “We were provided oximeters three days ago and the doctor asks me for the readings each evening. Our fever subsided on June 5 and now we are practically asymptomatic.”

A 55-year-old home maker from New Ashok Nagar also tested positive on June 13. “The fever had disappeared, but since she was Covid-positive, she had to stay in home quarantine,” the woman’s daughter said. “After confirming our address on phone, a woman constable came the following day to verify the address. Then a medical team arrived to check her vitals before putting up a poster outside our house.”

On testing positive, the woman’s family was asked to call the Covid helpline number to register for home quarantine. “Our house was disinfected, and the doctor enquires regularly about changes or new symptoms,” the daughter said. “Other family members will only be tested if we develop symptoms. We have to inform the authorities if any of us show signs of corona infection.”

After their experience, Deepa Gupta said, “We were initially scared, but now want to share with others that home quarantine is nothing to be frightened of.” Umesh Gupta too has posted in detail on WhatsApp about the home quarantine process.