Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) technical guidance by WHO Home care for patients with COVID-19 | Page 3

Home care for patients with COVID-19 presenting with mild symptoms and management of their contacts
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When HCWs provide home care, they should perform a
risk assessment to select the appropriate personal
protective equipment and follow the recommendations
for droplet and contact precautions.
For mild laboratory confirmed patients who are cared for
at home, to be released from home isolation, cases must
test negative using PCR testing twice from samples
collected at least 24 hours apart. Where testing is not
possible, WHO recommends that confirmed patients
remain isolated for an additional two weeks after
symptoms resolve.
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Acknowledgements
The original version of the MERS-CoV IPC guidance (1) that
constituted the basis for this document was developed in
consultation with WHO’s Global Infection Prevention and
Control Network and other international experts.
WHO thanks those who were involved in developing the
IPC documents for MERS-CoV.
Management of contacts
Persons (including caregivers and HCWs) who have been
exposed to individuals with suspected COVID-19 are
considered contacts and should be advised to monitor their
health for 14 days from the last day of possible contact.
WHO thanks the following individuals for providing review:
Abdullah M Assiri, Director General, Infection Control,
Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia; Michael Bell, Deputy
Director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA,
USA; Gail Carson, ISARIC Global Support Centre, Director
of Network Development, Consultant in Infectious
Diseases, and Honorary Consultant with Public Health
England, United Kingdom; John M Conly, Department of
Medicine, Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious
Diseases, Calvin, Phoebe and Joan Snyder Institute for
Chronic Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary,
Calgary, Canada; Barry Cookson, Division of Infection and
Immunity, University College London, United Kingdom;
Babacar NDoye, Board Member, Infection Control Network,
Dakar,
Senegal;
Kathleen
Dunn,
Manager,
Healthcare-Associated Infections and Infection Prevention
and Control Section, Centre for Communicable Disease
Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada;
Dale Fisher, Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network
Steering Committee; Fernanda Lessa, Epidemiologist,
Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA; Moi Lin
Ling, Director, Infection Control Department, Singapore
General Hospital, Singapore, and President of Asia Pacific
Society of Infection Control; Didier Pittet, Director, Infection
Control Program and WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient
Safety, University of Geneva Hospitals, and Faculty of
Medicine,
Geneva,
Switzerland;
Fernando Otaiza O’Ryan, Head, National IPC Program,
Ministry of Health, Santiago, Chile; Diamantis Plachouras,
Unit of Surveillance and Response Support, European Centre
for Disease Prevention and Control, Solna, Sweden;
Wing Hong Seto, Department of Community Medicine,
School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong, China,
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Nandini Shetty,
Consultant Microbiologist, Reference Microbiology Services,
Health Protection Agency, Colindale, United Kingdom;
Rachel M. Smith, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta,
GA, USA.
A contact is a person who is involved in any of the following
from 2 days before and up to 14 days after the onset of
symptoms in the patient: 5
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Having face-to-face contact with a COVID-19 patient
within 1 meter and for >15 minutes;
Providing direct care for patients with COVID-19
disease without using proper personal protective
equipment;
Staying in the same close environment as a COVID-19
patient (including sharing a workplace, classroom or
household or being at the same gathering) for any amount
of time;
Travelling in close proximity with (that is, within 1 m
separation from) a COVID-19 patient in any kind of
conveyance;
and other situations, as indicated by local risk
assessments.
A way for caregivers to communicate with a health care
provider should be established for the duration of the
observation period. Also, health care personnel should review
the health of contacts regularly by phone but, ideally and if
feasible, through daily in-person visits, so specific diagnostic
tests can be performed as necessary.
The health care provider should give instructions to contacts
in advance about when and where to seek care if they become
ill, the most appropriate mode of transportation to use, when
and where to enter the designated health care facility, and
which IPC precautions should be followed.
If a contact develops symptoms, the following steps should
be taken.
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as far away from others as possible (at least 1 metre)
when in transit and when in the health care facility.
Any surfaces that become soiled with respiratory
secretions or other body fluids during transport should be
cleaned with soap or detergent and then disinfected with
a regular household product containing a 0.5% diluted
bleach solution.
Notify the receiving medical facility that a symptomatic
contact will be arriving.
While traveling to seek care, the contact should wear a
medical mask.
The contact should avoid taking public transportation to
the facility if possible; an ambulance can be called, or the
ill contact can be transported in a private vehicle with all
windows open, if possible.
The symptomatic contact should be advised to perform
respiratory hygiene and hand hygiene and to stand or sit
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