Things to when your guest COVID-19 with you.
It’s happened, The tiny coronavirus that’s causing big problems around the world has made it into your home.
What can you do?
Follow these ground rules without fail:
Don’t go within 6 feet of the sick person unless they, or you, have covered both mouth and nose with a mask or cloth. Stay out of the same room as them, and give them a dedicated space. Make sure the sick person coughs into their mask or cloth, or their elbow or a tissue, to keep virus particles out of the air. Dispose of tissues after one use. Clean your hands often and thoroughly with soap or alcohol rub. Clean surfaces with soap or disinfectants. Don’t touch your face unless you’ve just cleaned your hands.
You can safely help them cope with their symptoms at home, while protecting yourself and anyone else you live with.
Know the COVID-19 danger signs, and what to do if they happen:
For most people, a coronavirus infection will lay them low for a couple of weeks. Talk to their regular doctor about what to expect, but if you or someone you live with or know has these symptoms, it’s time to seek emergency care:
– Trouble breathing
– Chest pain or pressure that doesn’t go away
– Confusion or can’t be woken up
– Blue color in their lips or face
If they, or you, have a thing to when your guest COVID-19 with you., be especially watchful for these symptoms.
Caring for a COVID-19 patient at home
Here are 14 ways how:
Give him space
1. Pick a ‘sick room’: The sick person should stay in a bedroom with a door if at all possible, and not come out except to go to the bathroom. No one else should spend time in that room more than absolutely necessary. Children and pets should stay out. Keep a window open in the sick room if possible, to keep air circulating. Provide tissues.
If you don’t have more than one bedroom, give them the bedroom, and you can sleep on the couch or other temporary spot like an inflatable mattress, so you can still use the living room, kitchen and other spaces while they stay in their room.
2. Pick a ‘sick bathroom’: If you have two bathrooms, make one of them the sick person’s bathroom, and don’t let anyone else use it. If you don’t have two, you’re going to have to clean every surface they touch after they go to the bathroom, so it’s clean when you or other people you live with need to use it. (see cleaning tips below.) And don’t share water cups.
Symptoms and care
3. Help them track their symptoms: Have them take their temperature several times a day, without getting close to them. Write down the readings, and note when new symptoms occur.
4. Help them hydrate: Make sure they’re drinking a lot of water and other non-alcoholic clear liquids.
5. Ease their symptoms: Help them understand how often they can take medicine to reduce their fever, like acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Don’t let them take more than the recommended dose of any medicine, or use alcohol when taking a medicine that advises against it. Keep track of what the sick person has taken and when.
Make sure they keep taking any other medicines they would usually take, unless their doctor has told them to stop.
Take care Comfort and entertainment needs
6. Keep them comfortable and entertained, while keeping your distance: Make sure they have blankets and pillows, books, magazines, and a computer or TV to pass the time, and a charger for their phone near their bed, so you don’t have to go in and out of the room. Keep the house or apartment quiet so they can sleep.
Food
7. Help them with food, but keep your distance: Find a tray or cookie sheet that you can use to bring them food or drinks when they need it.
If they can get out of bed: Put the food and drinks on the tray, and place it outside their closed door. Walk away. They can open the door, get the tray, eat in their room, and then put the tray back on the floor outside the door and close it.
If they can’t get out of bed: Wear a mask or cloth over your mouth and nose when you go in their room, and have them cover theirs too. Bring their food and drink to their bedside table, and go back after a while to pick it up again, wearing a mask or cloth again. Wash their dishes thoroughly with hot water and soap. Don’t touch your face after handling their dishes, and wash your hands thoroughly after you touch anything they ate or drank from.
Laundry
8. Keep their laundry separate: Bring changes of clothes and pajamas to them if they’re not already in the sick room. Get your clothes out of the sick room if they’re usually stored there.
Make sure they have a basket, hamper or bag in the sick room to put clothes, towels, washcloths and bedding in. Have them put it outside their door when it’s full, or wear a mask or cloth over your mouth and nose when you go in to get it. Wash their clothes, towels and bedding separately from anyone else’s.
Clean
9. Clean, clean, clean: Go through your entire home and use disinfectant spray or wipes to clean everything the sick person might have touched when they were in the early stages of getting sick, or when they were contagious before developing symptoms.
No visitors
10. Say no to visitors: You shouldn’t be having guests over anyway, or people working inside your home. If you have to see someone in person, do it outside your home, preferably outdoors, and stay at least six feet away from them. If they’re bringing you something, ask them to put it down and step away so you can pick it up.
Use Technology to connect
11. Use technology to connect: It may seem silly to do a video chat or voice call with someone in the next room, but it can give the sick person human contact with you, your children or pets, and others in the home, without spreading the virus. Make sure they can connect virtually with others, too – including relatives, friends, coworkers and faith organizations. This can ease the awfulness of being sick and stuck in one room.
Stay Home
12. Stay home yourself: Now that you and others in your home have had contact with someone who has or might have COVID-19, you could carry the virus with you to work or the store, even if you don’t have symptoms.
Don’t hesitate to seek help
13. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or moral support: It’s OK to let friends, neighbors and family know that someone you live with is sick, and to seek and accept their help while not letting them near the sick person.
Your Covid19 Guest has left
14. After they’re better: Someone who has had COVID-19, whether they got tested or not, should stay home and away from others until they meet the following criteria: they can be with others only after they’ve been fever-free, without medication, for three days AND their respiratory symptoms have improved (this includes coughing or shortness of breath) AND it has been 10 days since their symptoms first appeared. The CDC also states that people who have been around someone with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 should stay home for 14 days after that exposure.
Afterward, you, and they, should do a thorough cleaning of the ‘sick room’, including wiping down all hard surfaces, washing bedding including blankets, and vacuuming.
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