First 14 days most critical for vulnerable Covid-19 patients
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Some patients takes a turn for the worse only midway through this period, said Ministry of Health's director of medical services Kenneth Mak.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Timothy Goh
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The first 14 days of illness are the most critical for those who are more vulnerable to the disease, the Ministry of Health's director of medical services Kenneth Mak said yesterday.
Speaking at a media conference on the spread of the coronavirus here, Associate Professor Mak said this time period is applicable to those showing more severe symptoms, or with risk factors that might result in their illness worsening.
Such people tend to either be older or have underlying medical conditions, he added.
Citing the experience of patients in Singapore hospitals as well as the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, he said: "If patients extend beyond the first two weeks (and) they remain very well and are very stable, the likelihood is that they will have a very good clinical outcome.
"That has led to our design of our care pathways to allow them to spend the first two weeks in a community care facility, and then subsequently allow them to stay in a community recovery facility to complete their recovery process."
He noted the condition of some patients takes a turn for the worse only midway through this period.
He said: "Some individuals with Covid-19 infection start off relatively well, but towards the end of the first week and into the early part of the second week, that is that window period when some start to display other symptoms or their symptoms get worse, and they require more care.
"Therefore, that is the period of time during which we are parti-cularly concerned, to make sure we do not miss any signs of cli-nical deterioration."
