New COVID-19 Strategy

The government’s new COVID-19 strategy will see home based isolation and home care for individuals who are tested positive for COVID-19.

Advisor to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services  Dr. Yogesh Choudri said this in an interview with SIBC News yesterday (20th January 2022). 

The new strategy is to deal with the limited hospital beds and resources which the health sector is currently facing due to the increasing number of cases.

“Information on home care and preventive measures during the covid-19 outbreak will be provided to families and communities as currently our bed facilities are close to full capacity,”Dr Choundri said.  

The Central Field Hospital is now reserved for patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms while those with mild symptoms will have to treat themselves at home. 

Dr Choundri said, the focus now is on preventing hospitalization and deaths as information on the current outbreak was received later than they prefer. 

“Usually when an outbreak starts it starts with one, two, three cases then slowly increases over a period of time…this outbreak is now in its second week so we got the information late, so all of a sudden we see this increase in the number of cases,” he said. 

Dr Choundri assured the Central Field Hospital only has 56 beds so the government has to move on to home based isolation and care. 

He said despite the new COVID-19 strategy, the ministry has been preparing for an outbreak.

He added the government’s plan to secure an additional 500 hospital beds was already in its advanced stage when a community transmission was announced.

‘The infiltration and importation of the virus into the community to be frank has caught us off guard so now we really have to push ourselves to establish more hospitals and beds,” Dr Choudri said. 

He said under the current COVID-19 strategy plan, the ministry will respond to the outbreak within the first four to five weeks to put all people in isolation, do contact tracing, and put people in quarantine. 

Meanwhile, the Health Advisor called on the public to stay safely at home and follow all COVID-19 preventive measures.

The public is advised to inform the ministry of any possible outbreak of the virus in their area. 

Covid-19 Symptoms 

Most common symptoms:

• Fever, cough, tiredness, loss of taste or smell.

Less common symptoms:

• sore throat, headache, aches and pains, diarrhoea, a rash on skin, or discolouration of fingers or toes, red or irritated eyes.

Serious symptoms:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, loss of speech or mobility, or confusion, chest pain. 

By Sharon Nanau