Out-of-Hospital Cohort Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients with Mild Symptoms in Korea: an Experience from a Single Community Treatment Center

Park, Peong Gang; Kim, Chang Hyup; Heo, Yoon; Kim, Tae Suk; Park, Chan Woo; Kim, Choong-Hyo

There were many limitations regarding the installation and the operation of CTC. Firstly, this facility does not have a negative-pressure air conditioning system and we divided the clean zone and the patient's zone arbitrarily, anticipating natural ventilation effects. Secondly, the standard recommended protocol of changing PPEs between every testing of patients, to prevent cross-infection among patients and specimen contamination, were not strictly adhered to due to the lack of resources. 5 In fact, a considerable number of patients received negative results initially but then got positive results on the consecutive test. These results may be due to window periods of virus infection, but the possibility of cross-infection among patients during sample collection or contamination of specimens cannot be excluded. Also, due to the limitations of the original facility, not all patients could receive solitary rooms, although they used separate bedrooms and bathroom inside the shared space and were promptly reassigned to solitary rooms as soon as other patients were discharged and solitary rooms became available. If more CTCs are to be operated, as is expected, this problem will be ameliorated. Also, as we selected and admitted patients under the criteria limited to their age and a simple questionnaire, the risk factors and the severity of the disease of each patient were not fully understood, although we could identify and transfer some high-risk patients using the initial chest radiograph. As more about the nature and risk factors of COVID-19 are being identified, it would become easier for us to identify the risk and severity of the patients admitted to CTC.