Mbabane: The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare through the Health Director, Dr Vusi Magagula has emphatically stated that amidst the persistent deadly coronavirus also known as Covid-19 there is nothing that government can do to assist recovering patients who live in one room flats.
Across the nation are people who have no place they call home but find refuge as tenants in rented flats, mostly one roomed. The country is strewn with informal settlements despite a steady growth in developmental infrastructure. One roomed flats are more affordable to the mostly low income earners some of who are without original homes and with recoveries from the virus it leaves much to be desired how they will be housed. Some tenants keep as much as three (3) children including a wife or husband in a single room without any alternative, who could be at risk of getting infected.
Recoveries are cautioned to stay away from others in their homes, find their own rooms to protect others. They are to keep the door closed, use a separate bathroom, if available. They are also to clean all surfaces that are shared with others.
The Health Director mentioned that rather, recovering tenants who stay in one roomed flats should seek alternative ways like finding relatives with dwellings consisting of more than one house. “Here, recovering patients can be confined within the specified period of time,” said the Director. He snubbed recommendations of using the school buildings which were left vacant after government ordered that schools be closed and pupils sent home.
Low risk
According to worldwide web reports, to some extent, though the first batch of studies is far from conclusive as to how long the recovery period lasts, suggestions are to the effect that COVID-19 recoveries can be infectiousness. Reports also reveal that– in contrast to the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak – recovering patients with mild symptoms become low-risk around 10 days after they first fall ill. But another study, following four medical professionals treated at a Wuhan hospital, revealed that traces of the virus could persist in the body for up to two weeks after symptoms had vanished; as the patients were no longer coughing or sneezing, the potential means of transmission were albeit much reduced. Less optimistic was a study published in The Lancet medical journal that showed the virus survived in one Chinese patient’s respiratory tract for thirty seven (37) days – well above the average of 24 days for those with critical disease status.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) defines recovery from COVID-19 as an absence of fever, with no use of fever-reducing medication, for three full days; improvement in other symptoms, such as coughing and shortness of breath; a period of seven full days since symptoms first appeared. Two negative swab tests on consecutive days are considered as the all-clear – meaning self-isolation can end and a patient can theoretically begin having contact with others, including at work.
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