Mild Confirmed Cases Manage Themselves at Home... Self Home Treatment Q&A

Within 90 Days of 2nd Dose or 3rd Dose
Quarantine Exemption for Confirmed Cohabitants

Treatment Kits Only for High-Risk Groups
General Groups Must Purchase Directly

Students Exposed to Confirmed Cases
Can Attend School with Negative Test Result

Medical staff are conducting non-face-to-face consultations with COVID-19 home treatment patients at the Home Treatment Situation Room of Seongnam Medical Center in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do.

With the spread of the Omicron variant virus, there are projections that daily new COVID-19 cases could rise to 170,000 by the end of this month, prompting health authorities to shift the home treatment system to focus on managing high-risk patients. Asymptomatic and mild patients under 60 years old are required to manage their health by themselves using fever reducers and other medications, and receive non-face-to-face medical consultations if they feel unwell, a so-called ‘self-treatment’ approach. In schools preparing to reopen next month, each school will operate its own testing system and decide autonomously whether to attend classes based on the infection situation.

Q. What is the process for home treatment of COVID-19 confirmed patients?

A. Since the 7th, health authorities have started sending a ‘self-filled epidemiological investigation form (electronic document)’ via text message to those confirmed positive through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Confirmed patients fill out the form and send it to the public health center. If hospital treatment is necessary, the health center guides the patient to be admitted to a hospital; otherwise, asymptomatic or mild patients are classified as home treatment cases. Among home treatment patients, those eligible for oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment?people aged 60 or older, immunocompromised individuals, and patients in their 50s with underlying conditions?are classified as the ‘intensive management group,’ while the rest are the ‘general management group.’ However, local governments may additionally classify some non-oral antiviral treatment candidates as intensive management. The health center informs confirmed patients about this classification, non-face-to-face treatment methods, and behavioral guidelines. Authorities expect about 10% of confirmed patients to be hospitalized or admitted to medical institutions, and about 90% to be treated at home.

Q. How do ‘general management group’ home treatment patients receive care?

A. Health authorities do not conduct separate health monitoring calls for the general management group. Confirmed patients isolate at home and monitor their own health. If symptoms worsen or medical care is needed during isolation, patients can call their usual clinic or hospital for non-face-to-face consultation or visit an outpatient treatment center for in-person care. If sudden issues arise at night, such as a sudden fever, patients can call the ‘Home Care Support Counseling Center’ operated autonomously by local governments. Non-face-to-face consultation is free of charge, and necessary medications can be prescribed.

Q. What are the quarantine criteria for household members of confirmed patients?

A. From the 9th, household members of confirmed patients who have completed their second COVID-19 vaccine dose at least 14 days ago and within 90 days, or those who have received a third dose, are exempt from self-quarantine. They are subject to passive monitoring, meaning they check their health condition themselves without quarantine and contact the public health center if abnormalities occur. Household members who have not completed vaccination previously had to quarantine for an additional 7 days after the confirmed patient’s isolation period, but now only need to quarantine together with the confirmed patient for 7 days. The quarantine restriction is lifted at midnight on the 7th day without separate notification.

Q. How do patients receive prescriptions during non-face-to-face consultations?

A. After a medical institution prescribes medication through a non-face-to-face consultation, the prescription is sent to a pharmacy. The principle is that a guardian or household member collects the medication in person. However, single-person households and elderly living alone receive medication delivery through the public health center. General management group patients are not eligible for oral COVID-19 antiviral treatments such as Paxlovid and currently cannot receive these medications.

Q. How can home treatment patients visit outpatient treatment centers?

A. There is no need to report separately to the public health center. Until now, an app using GPS was used to monitor whether home treatment patients and their household members left isolation, but from the 7th, this app is no longer used, making it practically difficult to monitor unauthorized departures. However, health authorities explain that while administrative monitoring is not conducted, penalties for violating isolation remain in place.

Q. Do general management group patients receive home treatment kits?

A. Kits containing fever reducers, thermometers, oxygen saturation meters, and disinfectants are only delivered to confirmed patients in the intensive management group. It was judged that these supplies are not essential for the general management group. General management patients can receive non-face-to-face consultations anytime and be admitted to a hospital immediately through the public health center if abnormalities occur. If they wish to have a kit, they must purchase it individually online or elsewhere.

In December of last year, remote classes were being conducted for second-year students at Jangwi Middle School in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul.

Q. Will schools reopen normally on March 2?

A. On the day of reopening, students who are not confirmed positive or subject to self-quarantine are expected to attend school normally. If confirmed cases occur, each school will respond with one of four types based on the scale of confirmed cases: full attendance, full attendance with restrictions on extracurricular activities, a mix of in-person and remote classes, or fully remote classes. If the proportion of newly confirmed students exceeds 3% or the proportion of students suspended from attending exceeds 15%, schools will restrict extracurricular activities or implement mixed remote classes.

Q. What happens to students who have been in contact with confirmed cases?

A. Students with symptoms or underlying conditions among contacts must obtain a school principal’s medical opinion and undergo PCR testing at a screening clinic; they may attend school after receiving a negative result. Asymptomatic students receive self-test kits from the school and test themselves at home at least three times over one week at two-day intervals; if negative, they may continue attending school. Contacts include those who lived in the same space, ate together, or conversed without masks for more than 15 minutes from two days before the confirmed patient’s symptom onset (or specimen collection date if asymptomatic) until the day of confirmation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.