Majority don't have oximeters, personal or assigned doctors

GUWAHATI: The majority of asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients under home isolation in Assam do not have pulse oximeters nor personal or assigned doctors. Though the Assam Government had announced to provide oximeters to the infected persons in home isolation, such gadgets to monitor the oxygen-saturation level are yet to reach them.

A study conducted by a team of researchers and doctors among 1,000 asymptomatic COVID-19 patients currently undergoing home isolation in the State, has found that 29.9% patients either don't have oximeters or cannot afford to purchase the same. On other hand, 22.3% of these patients do not have any personal or assigned doctors.

The study has observed that there is an urgent need to put in place an effective mechanism to monitor the health condition of such patients (in home isolation). If an agency comprising volunteers, doctors and other government officials does the monitoring job, home isolation is the best option for the asymptomatic and also the mild symptomatic patients particularly in the Greater Guwahati areas, the study observed.

The team headed by Dr Gayatri Gogoi, Assistant Professor of Pathology department at Assam Medical College & Hospital, Dibrugarh has found that 300 out of 1,000 patients have already completed 14 days of home isolation without developing any health and medical complications. The rest of the patients are also doing fine till this date.

The study was conducted by a team of doctors, in collaboration with Assam Police and Pratishruti Cancer and Palliative Trust. Dr Gogoi told The Sentinel that some patients undergoing home isolation had faced shortage of food items and medicines. "Since we were monitoring their health condition, the Assam Police personnel had provided the necessary items to the needy families in home isolation. We also conducted telemedicine counseling to the patients. So, many patients did not feel the necessity of having oximeters and personal doctors as were monitoring their health conditions. We hope that the State Government will soon provide oximeters to those in home isolation," Dr Gogoi said.

The study has also found that of the 1,000 patients in home isolation 4.5% were symptomatic and 2.3% had serious co-morbid conditions. Barring two families, no other patients had to be shifted to hospitals or ICU care. Those in home isolation were of different age groups including 70 to 80 years. Maximum patients were in the age group of 30 to 50 years.

Dr Gogoi added that while nearly18% patients do not have any personal vehicles, 8.9% patients lack caregivers.

"From our findings, we can conclude that home isolation could be the best option for the asymptomatic and also the mild symptomatic patients if they follow the government guidelines. Family members of some patients try to go out of home. But many such risky attempts have been foiled due to mobile app launched by the Assam Police to track movements of family members of infected persons.

"Neighbours need to little bit cooperative to provide certain essential items to patients in home isolation by following COVID safety norms," Dr Gogoi said, adding that it is high time to reduce the patient-load in the COVID Care Centres and hospitals.

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