How To Care For Someone With COVID-19 At Home. One Tip: Don't Shake Their Laundry

We’re asking public health officials and experts to answer your questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. Keep in mind that this information does not constitute professional medical advice. For questions regarding your own health, always consult a physician.

For those caring for someone with COVID-19 at home, a mask is mandatory. But there are also a number of other things to think about, says UCLA’s Dr. Robert Kim-Farley. He’s with the Fielding School of Public Health and a former staffer with the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

First, you have to closely watch that person...

“When you're caring for someone who has COVID-19 and they have not gotten ill enough to have to go to the hospital, I think the first thing that you need to realize is that you need to be monitoring them to make sure that if they start having trouble breathing or, you know, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, that you're calling their healthcare provider to say that, ‘Hey look this person is experiencing some more severe symptoms,’ especially if they're elderly or they had pre-existing conditions.”

Also...

“Make sure that person has a mask, and that you’re wearing a mask... Cleaning surfaces frequently, trying to keep that person who is sick to using just one bedroom. Ideally, just one bathroom.

And this is interesting...

“Laundry is okay but you shouldn’t be shaking the laundry before putting it in the machine so you're not aerosolizing these virus particles that may be on their laundry.

Finally...

“I think the important thing is, again, just making sure that any unnecessary visitors are restricted and washing your hands frequently.”

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