Review on home care recommendations for patients with suspected COVID-19 presenting with mild symptoms

Caring for COVID-19 patients at home is a global challenge. This study aimed to review recommendations put forward on home care for patients with suspected COVID-19 presenting with mild clinical features. This is a review of the scientific literature covering COVID-19 and home care from the medical electronic databases such as PubMed, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and CINAHL. The electronic databases were searched from the beginning of 2019 to the end of August 2020. The search terms included home care, COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019, caring, and nursing care. Articles were included if they reported on aspects of home care for managing patients with mild clinical features of COVID-19. Articles were excluded if they reported on management within healthcare facilities, were about therapeutic management not possible in home care, and non-study type articles. Reference lists of retrieved journals were also reviewed. There was a total of 1,970 identified articles; 950 studies were duplicates and were removed, after which 500 titles and abstracts remained for review. Review of the title and abstracts found 60 articles which met the inclusion criteria. After analysis of the full text articles, 12 articles were included in this study. The main areas covering home care can be summarized as home-based quarantine, management of contacts, early diagnosis at home, control of clinical features (i.e. fever and cough), appropriate nutrition and adequate fluid intake, establishment of a monitoring center, psychological support, and telemedicine. The use of home quarantine for people with mild clinical features of COVID-19 is possible with support services and will assist in reducing the demand on hospitals.