Health ministry allows Covid patients to ditch quarantine

In a new guideline to manage Covid-19 at home issued Monday, the Ministry of Health said Covid-19 cases should try not to leave quarantine and go outside, but if they have to, masks and social distancing are required to prevent infection.

People taking care of Covid-19 patients or stay in the same house must always wear masks and try to keep their distances while interacting with Covid-19 cases. Quarantine locations must be well-ventilated, and people should refrain from using objects that are hard to be cleaned, for example stuffed animals.

Under the new guideline, mild and asymptomatic Covid-19 cases may be treated at home. Those with underlying conditions must have kept their conditions under control to be treated at home. Those who have been treated at medical facilities and have partially recovered may also go home.

Recent Covid-19 policies in Vietnam are getting gradually more lax as the country switches to an adaptation strategy to co-exist with the coronavirus. Earlier this month, the health ministry had proposed to stop the daily count of new Covid-19 cases and allow Covid-19 patients and their close contacts to go to work.