How to home-quarantine?
The following advice will enable you to safely and effectively quarantine at home.
It is extremely important that you follow the rules of home-quarantine. You have a responsibility and duty to protect yourself, your family, your friends, and the community as a whole.
How to quarantine yourself?
- Stay at home in a separate room to other family members, preferably one with an ensuite bathroom, and ensure proper and regular ventilation
- Avoid any contact with other family members
- Don’t allow visitors into your house
- Use your phone if you need to contact anyone else in the house
- Ask others - a family members or friend - to run errands for you like buying food or medicine
- You must not leave your house. In the event of a medical emergency call 999.
- Only one member of the family should be allowed to provide care to you. Your caregiver should wear a facemask and gloves every time he or she enters your room and should dispose of the mask and gloves and wash their hands immediately after leaving the room. A distance of at least one meter shall be maintained between you and your caregiver at all times.
How to protect yourself and others from infection?
- Ensure you wash your hands with water and soap frequently, with the correct technique, for at least 20 seconds, or use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol if water and soap is not available.
- It is important to always wash your hands thoroughly:
- After coughing or sneezing
- Before, during and after preparing food
- Before eating
- After going to the bathroom
- Everyone in the home should wash their hands regularly and avoid touching their face, mouth or nose.
- Cover your mouth with a tissue while coughing or sneezing and dispose of the tissue immediately in a lined trash bin. Wash your hands immediately after. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow.
- Avoid sharing personal household items like dishes, drinking glasses, eating utensils, toothbrushes, clothes, pillows, bed linen, or towels with other people in your home and wash these items thoroughly with soap and warm water after use.
- Clean and disinfect surfaces and used items at least once a day, including door handles, toilets, tables, TV remote controls, mobile phones, and all other high-touch surfaces and items. Single-use gloves should be used when cleaning and once you finish cleaning, dispose of the gloves and wash your hands thoroughly.
- Make sure your clothes washed separately from other people’s clothes in the house.
Using the toilet and bathroom
- Don’t share towels with other people in your home and use your own towels, whether you use them to dry off after shower or to dry your face and hands.
- If
the bathroom in your home is a shared bathroom, make sure you clean it after each use.
Eating at home
- Avoid cooking or preparing food for others, let someone else in the home cook your food to avoid entering the kitchen.
- Eat your food in your room and avoid eating or drinking with other people in the house.
- Be careful to wash your dishes separately from others in the house.
- Make sure to eat healthy food that strengthens your immunity system.
- Make sure to drink enough water (8-12 glasses a day).
Additional useful information
- If you have a chronic health condition and require regular medication, ensure you have adequate supply available at home
- Use simple ways to explain the situation to children and avoid any direct contact with them
- Make sure there is a closed trash bin in your room. Place a plastic bag in your trash bin and ensure the plastic bag is tightly sealed before you throw it.
- Make sure to get enough sleep and rest.
- Avoid contact with any pet in the house, especially if other people are also in contact with it.
Items to have available
- Face masks. Do not use it more than one time, throw the mask in the trash and wash your hands well after you use it
- Gloves. Do not use them more than one time, throw the gloves in the trash and wash your hands well after you use it
- Thermometer
- Alcohol swabs
- Fever-reducing medicine, such as Panadol
- Hand soap
- Hand sanitizer, must contain at least 60% alcohol
- Home cleaning items, including toilet and kitchen detergents
- Tissue paper
- Alcohol wipes
- Closed trash bins
Important Note
If you are sick with flu-like illness, such as (fever, coughing or shortness of breath), please call 16000.