China Releases Requirements for Home Quarantine

By Ned Kelly

In a promising sign, China Center for Disease Control yesterday released its home quarantine requirements.

According to the current New Coronary Pneumonia Prevention and Control Plan (Eighth Edition), those that are eligible for home quarantine are as follows: 

• Close contacts and special groups in close contact
• Inbound personnel from abroad who implement '7+7'
• Patients who have been discharged and asymptomatic infected persons after release from isolation
• Others who cannot undergo centralized isolation medical observation after evaluation by healthcare professionals

Here are the outlined requirements.

1. Room Requirements

If you have multiple properties, it is best to live alone; if you only have one property, choose a room with good ventilation to isolate in and live independently. 

Try to use a separate bathroom and avoid sharing a bathroom with other family members. If these conditions cannot be met, it is better not to choose home isolation.

The room should be well ventilated. Try to avoid using air conditioners in the room; if you do use an air conditioning system for ventilation, you should choose split air conditioners.

The room should be equipped with thermometers, tissues, masks, disposable gloves, disinfectants and other personal protective equipment and disinfection products, as well as covered trash cans.

Tables and stools should be placed indoors as junctions for non-contact delivery of items (such as takeaway meals and disinfection).

2. Requirements for Management of Medical Observers

Home isolation should be conducted under the guidance of health facility assessments and community managers.

People in isolation at home should limit their daily life and meals to the isolation room as much as possible.

There is no need to wear a mask in the isolation room. Wear a mask when leaving the isolation room. 

Minimize contact with other family members, and keep a distance of more than 1 meter when contact is necessary.

Those in home isolation are not allowed outside visitors, and other people should not try to enter the isolation room. 

If it is necessary to go out for medical treatment, a special car can be arranged only after the approval of the community management, with personal protection measures adhered to throughout the whole process, as well as the implementation of closed-loop management.

Used tissues, toilet paper, masks, disposable gloves and other household garbage needs to be put into plastic garbage bags, placed in special trash cans and disinfected every day with disinfectant containing 500-1000 mg/liter of chlorine or 75% alcohol. Wet it completely, then tie the plastic garbage bag tightly and hand it over to the community manager for disposal.

Isolators should report their temperature and symptoms to community managers in a timely manner and cooperate with the community to complete nucleic acid testing in accordance with prevention and control requirements.

3. Co-Residents Protection

Co-residents or companions must comply with the home isolation management requirements above.

When co-occupants and those in isolation are in the same room, masks should be worn and changed each time.

After direct contact with those in home isolation, or after leaving their living space, hands should be cleaned and disinfected. Maintain continuous ventilation, and do daily household cleaning and disinfection.

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[All images via China Center for Disease Control]

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