If these people have not been proven to be in close contact with a sick and contagious person and do not have typical symptoms (cough, fever, breathing problems), they can resume their professional activity.
In general, it is recommended to avoid unnecessary travel. In case of travel, the respect of barrier gestures is indicated:
Given that many hospitalized people are vulnerable, visits of hospital patients are prohibited until further notice. If a visit has to take place, all of the necessary protective measures must be taken in order to protect the patients.
The hospital business continuity plan is to be activated.
Health staff leave can be cancelled, if necessary.
Hospitals will deploy their staff mainly to urgent and acute activities. In order to reduce the risk of the virus circulating in hospitals, medical, surgical and care activities which are not short-term indispensable are cancelled. Patients with COVID-19 who do not show severe complications (cases with light symptoms) will be cared for at home, while respecting the recommended isolation measures.
No. As these facilities care for very vulnerable people, visits and leaves are prohibited until further notice.
Directors of structures may allow, depending on the circumstances, exceptions from the prohibition of access and exit for relatives and family members. All persons entering the premises must disinfect their hands and respect the general rules of hygiene.
As more and more cases have appeared in Europe and Luxembourg and as it has become clear that it is impossible to keep the virus from spreading throughout the general population, the control strategy has been adapted. The strategy does not rely on formal preventive quarantine measures anymore, but instead focuses on isolation, auto-isolation and auto-quarantine. From now on, the accent lies on the protection of fragile populations at risk of severe complications.
Auto-monitoring lasts 14 days and applies to people who are likely to have been infected with the virus through contact with a sick person. The purpose of auto-monitoring is to detect symptoms of infection as soon as they appear. The person under auto-monitoring measures his or her temperature twice a day and makes sure there are no breathing problems or coughing. During auto-monitoring, normal activities can be continued.
The auto-quarantine applies to people who have had intimate contact or who live in the same household as a person who is confirmed to be infected.
They must stay at home during seven days counting from the day of the confirmed diagnosis. During this period, contact with other people should be avoided. During the seven days following a self-quarantine, self-monitoring should be carried out.
Auto-isolation applies to people who have symptoms of illness compatible with COVID-19 but whose infection is not confirmed. They should stay home for 7 days from the onset of symptoms and avoid contact with other people if possible. Once the symptoms have disappeared, they must stay at home for 24 more hours.
Isolation applies to people who have a confirmed infection with SARS-COV-2. This measure is designed to prevent the infected person, who is contagious, from spreading the infection to his surroundings.
Isolation is prescribed by the physician for a minimum of 14 days after the onset of symptoms. During this period of confinement at home, contact with other people must be avoided and a surgical mask must be worn whenever the infected person is in the presence of others.
Wearing a mask in a preventive manner is not recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a means to avoid contamination with the COVID-19 virus. The WHO recommends that health personnel, who themselves have respiratory symptoms, should wear a surgical mask to avoid contaminating others. The use of special masks (FFP2) to prevent infection with coronavirus only makes sense in hospitals where patients infected with coronavirus are treated and for the analysis of the body material of these patients.
Wearing an FFP2 mask is necessary for healthcare personnel when a test (nasal swab) is performed on a patient. Similarly, the laboratory technician must wear a surgical mask to be able to handle respiratory samples.