SINGAPORE: From Saturday (Sep 18), the home recovery scheme for fully vaccinated COVID-19 cases will be expanded to include patients up to 69 years old, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Friday.
Currently, only cases aged 12 to 50 years are eligible for home recovery, which will be the default care management model.
To be eligible for the scheme, COVID-19 patients must be fully vaccinated, aged between 12 and 69 years old, and have no severe co-morbidities or illnesses.
They must also be able to self-isolate in a room, "preferably" with an attached bathroom, said MOH.
There must also be no household members who are more than 80 years old or are in one of the vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women or those with weakened immune response, added MOH.
Under the expanded scheme, people who test positive for COVID-19 and meet the criteria can begin home recovery immediately, without having to be taken to a hospital or a community care facility.
"We continue to urge all fully vaccinated COVID-19 individuals below the age of 70 to adopt home recovery as the default care management, just like how you would recover from, say, influenza," said the Health Ministry.
Since Sep 15, home recovery has been the default care management model for suitable COVID-19 patients who are 50 or younger.
According to MOH, 597 fully vaccinated COVID-19 cases, including 13 children between five and 11 years old have “successfully started” their home recovery journey.
"This is close to a third of the community cases for the past two days, which is highly encouraging, as we see more individuals taking personal empowerment to take care of their own health and recovery," said MOH.
Since the pilot started on Aug 30, 32 of them have been discharged.
The Health Ministry said the data "continues to show" that fully vaccinated people are less at risk of severe illness, including those under the age of 70 years.
The expanded suitability criteria for home recovery will allow more COVID-19 patients to recover "within the comfort of their homes", and for hospital resources to be further directed to those who "really need more intensive care", said MOH.
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
Continue reading...
Currently, only cases aged 12 to 50 years are eligible for home recovery, which will be the default care management model.
To be eligible for the scheme, COVID-19 patients must be fully vaccinated, aged between 12 and 69 years old, and have no severe co-morbidities or illnesses.
They must also be able to self-isolate in a room, "preferably" with an attached bathroom, said MOH.
There must also be no household members who are more than 80 years old or are in one of the vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women or those with weakened immune response, added MOH.
Under the expanded scheme, people who test positive for COVID-19 and meet the criteria can begin home recovery immediately, without having to be taken to a hospital or a community care facility.
"We continue to urge all fully vaccinated COVID-19 individuals below the age of 70 to adopt home recovery as the default care management, just like how you would recover from, say, influenza," said the Health Ministry.
Related:
Since Sep 15, home recovery has been the default care management model for suitable COVID-19 patients who are 50 or younger.
According to MOH, 597 fully vaccinated COVID-19 cases, including 13 children between five and 11 years old have “successfully started” their home recovery journey.
"This is close to a third of the community cases for the past two days, which is highly encouraging, as we see more individuals taking personal empowerment to take care of their own health and recovery," said MOH.
Since the pilot started on Aug 30, 32 of them have been discharged.
The Health Ministry said the data "continues to show" that fully vaccinated people are less at risk of severe illness, including those under the age of 70 years.
The expanded suitability criteria for home recovery will allow more COVID-19 patients to recover "within the comfort of their homes", and for hospital resources to be further directed to those who "really need more intensive care", said MOH.
BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
Continue reading...