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Home-based quarantine: Absolute necessity in present situ: SLMA 

28 Aug 2021

By Yoshitha Perera   The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) 24/7 hotline had received more than 10,000 calls from Covid-19 patients in home-based quarantine within the past 8-10 days while the SLMA has launched a programme to distribute pulse oximeters for these patients, The Sunday Morning learnt.  Speaking to The Sunday Morning, SLMA Vice President Dr. Manilka Sumanatilleke said that the SLMA had launched a programme called “SLMA Covid Sahana” and requested to donate pulse oximeters.  He said: “Currently, the SLMA has bought 250 pulse oximeters and those are insufficient to handle the current situation. Accordingly, we requested donors to provide us some oximeters.”   He explained that by using a pulse oximeter, Covid-19 patients in home-based quarantine could monitor their situation while they could receive necessary advice from a specialist doctor over the phone. “At the moment, we are also discussing a method with the Covid-19 Centre at the Health Ministry to collect the particular pulse oximeter from the patient after a certain period and hand it over to another family,” Dr. Sumanatilleke said.  Responding to The Sunday Morning’s query on the effectiveness of the home-based quarantine system, he said that under these circumstances, it is absolutely necessary to manage a home-based quarantine system.   “We still don’t have formal analysis or data on how well home-based quarantine is functioning and it is too early to monitor the behaviour of this system. However, in this present situation, home-based quarantine is necessary.”  Dr. Sumanatilleke further explained that these patients specifically have to register via the Health Ministry hotline 1904, and they are being followed by a team of doctors. He said: “With the assistance of the recent hotline opened by the SLMA, if these home-based Covid-19 patients have any difficulties, the doctors assist them for immediate hospital admission.”  Meanwhile, in an interview with The Sunday Morning, Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that once both vaccine doses are administered, the viral load seems to be very low and most of the patients with both doses have been identified as mild attack cases.   “In a situation like this, there is no point running into a hospital. Particularly, the youngest group who have mild symptoms, can quarantine within their homes.”   The Minister further said that 86% of the current Covid-19 deaths are mainly due to chronic comorbidities and are those who had not got both vaccines. 


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