How to live with a coronavirus patient and take care of them avoiding the contagion

If you are reading this article surely you already know that you know someone infected with coronavirus or not, you should wash your hands often, and that not everyone with coronavirus ends up in a hospital (80% of them, fortunately, are cured with rest, care and paracetamol). But there is no doubt that a positive in a house, when shared with more people, is quite a logistical challenge to be able to prevent the disease from spreading to others. These are the keys so that this contagion does not occur.

Step 1. When in doubt, isolation

Unfortunately the coronavirus it is spread before symptoms appearThat is why, as soon as these appear, and before receiving an official confirmation from the health authorities (they are already implementing a test protocol to detect it early) the best thing to do is isolate the sick person in a room which will become your exclusive use.

That room must have ventilation, a door to isolate yourself from the rest of the house (which must always be closed) and if we can empty it a little to facilitate the cleaning of surfaces on a daily basis, better than better. Also, inside the room you have to put a phone, so that the sick person can communicate with the outside; an intercom of those used with babies (so that you can communicate with the rest of the inhabitants of the house), and a couple of garbage cans (with their respective plastic bags) from which the lid is lifted with a pedal. One of them we will reserve for dirty clothes and in the other you can put the tissue paper that you are going to use and a small bottle of alcohol to disinfect the door handles when entering and leaving.

Step 2. Appoint a responsible person

Only one of the people in the house should enter the room to give the patient the specific care he needs. When both the caregiver and the patient enter the room must have protective masks on.

The caregiver can also wear disposable gloves to clean and disinfect the surfaces of the room. The caregiver must remove the waste from the garbage by making a knot in the bag and putting that bag in another in the case of paper tissues and other garbage and take it directly to the washing machine, in the case of clothing. The person who acts as a caregiver must not belong to any risk group (This recommendation includes the elderly, people with altered immune systems or with serious chronic diseases and pregnant women).

Step 3. Time to clean everything thoroughly

Ideally, the patient have access to an exclusive bathroom. If this is not possible, each time the patient goes to the bathroom, disinfect it with water and bleachWe can prepare a bucket in which we have diluted the bleach in the morning and leave it in the bathroom door, but that water should be changed daily.

If the bathroom is shared, the patient must go to it with the mask on, the rest of the inhabitants of the house must keep a distance of two meters and the handles of the bathroom door must be disinfected when they go back into their room.

The person in isolation also you must have your own towels (which must be changed and washed separately and at a minimum temperature of 60 degrees), your own tableware (which should also be washed in the dishwasher and stored separately) and your room should be ventilated and clean the most touched areas (bedside tables, for example) once a day with water and bleach.