The Department of Medical Services has introduced guidelines on home isolation for green-coded COVID-19 patients due to the shortage of hospital beds.
Dr Somsak Akasilp, director-general of the department, said home isolation would be applied to COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms because 400-500 COVID patients were waiting for hospital beds daily.
The measure suited newly diagnosed patients and the patients who had received treatment at hospitals for 10 days and could spend the rest four days at home, he said.
The National Health Security Office agreed with the measure and approved financial assistance worth up to 1,000 baht a day for the home isolation of each patient. The budget supported the daily costs of meals, follow-ups and the measurements of body temperatures and blood oxygen levels, Dr Somsak said.
The measure could be applied to the patients who lived alone or with a few other dwellers in condominiums and houses where they had personal toilets. Doctors would approve home isolation for specific patients, not all, and the measure would be implemented on a voluntary basis and for the patients who did not have any serious complications, he said.
Thailand reported 36 more Covid-19 deaths and 4,662 new cases, bringing the accumulated toll to 1,970 deaths and the number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 254,515. (TNA)
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