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Benefits of Quarantine
Introduction
During contagious disease pandemics, the goal is to do everything possible to control and eradicate them. The occurrence of corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19) since December 2019 in Wuhan, China is severely affecting the lives of millions of people in addition to crumbling the healthcare and economic sectors globally (Wu, Chen, Chan, par 1). Markedly, the disease has a rapid infectivity rate with capacity to transmit the infection even in the asymptomatic phase (Mattioli, Sciomer, Cocchi,Maffei, Gallina, par 4). According to Wiley (par 2), there is no definitive treatment or vaccine to manage the disease but rather restrictive measures such as quarantine and physical distancing are implemented to minimize its transmission. Notably, quarantine refers to restricting the movement of people with no symptoms but had contact with either confirmed or suspected cases of the infection. Additionally, quarantine can be done voluntarily or enforced by authorities such as World Health Organization and applies to both individuals and groups of people. This essay discusses the benefits of quarantine especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Benefits of Quarantine during COVID-19 Pandemic
Reduction in the Rate of Disease Transmission
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of confirmed and death cases continues to rise daily owing to the rapid rate of infectivity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (par1), quarantine is a traditional intervention practiced since the 14th century aimed at protecting coastal cities from plaques such as yellow fever and cholera. Remarkably, in the absence of advanced healthcare systems and knowledge about infectious diseases, restricting people is a vital public health strategy with a goal of monitoring their symptoms and early recognition of cases. Similarly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous countries are imposing quarantine parameters to restrict people for 14 days at airports, national borders, and inland communities because current scientific researches reveal that symptoms present within this period (McCall, Nunan, Heneghan, par 7). According to a study by Schmidt, Davids and Malinga (par 7), quarantine measures implemented during the COVID-19 period are proving to be effective in minimizing the spread of disease by 44 – 81% as well as deaths by 31-63%. Therefore, this measure especially if accompanied by behavioral changes is an effective strategy to control the pandemic due to its case-reduction benefits.
Reduction in the Workload of Healthcare Workers
The great people are not just the successful ones but those that selflessly serve others. Markedly, healthcare workers are at the fore front of preventing and managing of COVID-19 cases as well as promoting well-being of those that recover from this fatal infection. Notably, at the start of the pandemic, the rapid rise in confirmed infections increased the workload of health workers leading to a state of burnout and mental health concerns (Sasangohar, Jones, Masud, Vahidy and Kash, par 1). In this regard, the demand for staff to manage the disease globally increased as the ratio of health worker to patient increased hugely and overwhelmed the health sector. Moreover, with limited knowledge about treatment options, health workers required to be extremely careful while handling patients to safeguard from contracting the infection. However, since the introduction of public health measures for example quarantine to contain the virus, the patient load significantly reduced and eased the burden on the frontline staff (Schmidt et al., par 7). Therefore, this program is beneficial to not only the authorities but also the healthcare providers by reducing their workload and saving them from the effects of exhaustion.
Conclusion
Since the emergence of COVID-19 in China, the entire world is still challenged by this contagious viral disease which is affecting almost all sections of the economy and development. Moreover, there are no definitive treatments and vaccines to manage the illness but rather implementation of public health interventions such as quarantine to minimize the rate of disease transmission. Quarantine, a measure that restricts people that have an exposure to the virus, is highly beneficial and is proving to be effective in containing the disease. Markedly, quarantine measures are significantly reducing the rate of spread of the virus globally by allowing monitoring of people for symptoms and early disease detection. Besides it lightens the workload of healthcare workers through reduction of the number of patients therefore making it a highly beneficial measure during the COVID-19 pandemic.