The Ministry of Health (MoH) has issued guidance on pilot home isolation for F1s, who have close contact with COVID-19 patients, in Ho Chi Minh City so as to prevent overcrowding and cross-infection at concentrated quarantine sites.

A woman has sample taken for COVID-19 testing in Binh Tan district of HCM City (Photo: VNA)

In a dispatch sent on June 27, the MoH asked the municipal People’s Committee to instruct communal-level administrations to permit home quarantine only after examining and confirming that houses of those F1s meet conditions for home quarantine; strictly manage and monitor the organisation of home quarantine; and carry out health monitoring of those F1s during and after the isolation period.

In order to be eligible for home quarantine, houses must stand separately from others and warning signs should be put in front of the houses. The room for the quarantined person must be separate from the family’s common spaces and does not share the central air-conditioning system, and be disinfected daily.

Those under home isolation must strictly adhere to relevant quarantine rules, including not leaving the isolation rooms during the quarantine period, not meeting other people or pets; installing and turning on the Vietnam Health Declaration or Bluezone apps; and making health declaration, conducting self-health monitoring, and updating information on the apps.

The elderly and persons with underlying health conditions needing medical care must not stay at the same houses with those under home isolation.

Besides, other people sharing the same houses must not directly contact the F1s. They should also carry out self-health monitoring and minimise leaving the house.

Medical workers need to collect information and examine the health condition of the F1s and their carers every day.

HCM City is witnessing complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of June 28 morning, it had recorded 3,280 infection cases in the fourth outbreak that began in late April.

Source: VNA