Is self-quarantine a better idea?

–Shrayana Ghosh, Amity University Kolkata

A statement by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) earlier stated that there was a comparatively higher risk of asymptomatic people being infected by COVID, which raised the number of people screened for COVID to a high level. Thousands of asymptomatic people flooded testing centers, resulting in thousands of pending studies. At the end of July and the beginning of August, LA County alone reported a massive batch of COVID tests in which only 5% of the tests were positive. Eventually, this gave rise to two big issues — first, a large number of pending tests resulted in the cancellation of surgeries and medication as a result of the preoccupation of the doctors, nurses, and equipment and medical procedures taking longer than usual, and second, patients who had been screened negative would inevitably fall ill and be tested positive a few days later. This called for a workaround where the government called for a stronger strategy of self-quarantine citizens who had been in touch with asymptomatic patients. It was then found that self-isolation could not only help minimize the rate of transmission of the disease but could also prevent excessive testing. Thus, proving to be a much safer way to deal with the virus.

Source

1. https://www.quora.com/q/fhyvfmxcexzhfjxy/This-is-really-confusing-The-CDC-previously-stated-that-the-danger-from-COVID-19-is-from-asymptomatic-carriers-who-unkn
2. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/home-isolation-is-now-an-option-for-covid-19-patients-who-are-pre-symptomatic-or-have-very-mild-symptoms/article31508716.ece