By Chantalé Fletcher
SYMPTOMATIC Covid-19 patients will now have to wait 13 days before discharge from quarantine, while asymptomatics can be discharged after ten days.
This according to Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram at the virtual media conference of the Ministry of Health on Saturday.
He said, “In asymptomatic cases, persons will be discharged after ten days from the date on which the positive sample was taken, and these were persons who never had any symptoms at all.
“So, for symptomatic cases and this goes from mild cases all the way up to severe cases, persons will be discharged at a minimum of ten days after they had symptoms, and we’re adding three days where they don’t have any symptoms of the acute or acute symptoms.”
Dr Parasram explained there were certain symptoms that persist for a very long period of time such as shortness of breath, fatigue and others.
The CMO said, “But, we’re looking at the absence of acute symptoms in the absence of medication.”
He said, “If you develop acute symptoms during the quarantine period, you will be treated.”
The main common symptoms for acute infections prior to discharge were cough, fever, and runny nose (rhinorrhea).
Dr Parasram added quarantine was the restriction of activities and or separation of persons who are not ill, but who may have been exposed to a person with confirmed or probable SARS Covid 2 infection; while isolation was the separation of persons with the known infection to prevent the spread of the virus.
He urged persons in self-quarantine to notify their County Medical Officer of Health immediately, if after they develop symptoms after the 14-day period, and arrangements will be made for Covid-19 testing.
