Celebrity Nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar Shares 5 Diet Tips For Speedy Recovery From COVID-19

India witnessed another record daily rise in coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours last with 386,452 news cases and 3,498 deaths, as per the health ministry data updated on Friday morning. With this the total caseload has gone up to over 1.87 crore and the death toll surged to 2.08 lakh. Currently, there are more than 31 lakh active cases while over 1.53 crore people have recovered after testing positive. The country is reeling under a deep healthcare crisis, with hospitals overwhelmed, medicines and oxygen in short supply and people dying without proper getting treatment. As COVID-19 cases surge rapidly at alarming rate in the national capital, overwhelmed hospitals are turning Covid patients away, due to lack of beds, medicines and oxygen. To reduce the crowd in hospitals, the Union Health Ministry on Thursday revised its guidelines for home isolation. It allowed home isolation for immuno-compromised patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms, based on evaluation by doctors. For those in home isolation, celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar has shared some diet tips for speedy recovery from COVID-19.

The dietician whose clientele include some of the fittest Bollywood actors, from Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan to Varun Dhawan, suggested people recovering from Covid-19 to follow these five steps:

• Start your day with soaked almonds and raisins.
• Have ragi dosa or porridge for breakfast.
• Finish your lunch with jaggery and ghee or have Roti with jaggery and ghee for lunch.
• Have khichdi for dinner to help with good sleep.
• Stay hydrated, drink water, have homemade sherbet and chaas.

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Read the revised guidelines for home isolation

In the revised guidelines for home isolation, the Union Health Ministry said that Covid-19 patients with upper respiratory tract symptoms such as sore throat and persistent cough, and oxygen saturation of more than 94 per cent should opt for home isolation. Here are some key points included in the new guidelines for home isolation

• Home isolation for immuno-compromised patients with mild symptoms, but only after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer. Earlier, patients with HIV, those undergoing cancer therapy, transplant recipients, were not recommended to remain in home isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus because of their immune-compromised status.
• In the treatment protocol for patients in home isolation with mild symptoms, the guidelines recommend symptomatic management for fever, running nose and cough, and warm-water gargles or steam inhalation twice a day.
• For home isolation, doctors may prescribe Ivermectin (200 mcg/kg once a day, to be taken on an empty stomach for 3-5 days) and inhalational Budesonide (given via inhalers with spacer at a dose of 800 mcg twice daily for 5-7 days) if symptoms such as fever and/or cough persist beyond five days after the onset of the disease. If symptoms persist for longer than seven days, patients should consult doctors, who should consider treatment with low-dose oral steroids, the guidelines said.
• If fever is not controlled with the maximum dose of paracetamol (650 mg four times a day), a doctor may consider advising other drugs like a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) such as Naproxen (250 mg twice a day), according to the guidelines. But it recommends strongly against use of the in-demand antiviral remdesivir in home settings.

Patients should seek medical attention or consultation of their treating physician/surveillance team if they develop four specific symptoms: difficulty in breathing; dip in oxygen saturation (SpO2 less than 94 per cent on room air); persistent pain/pressure in the chest; mental confusion or inability to arouse from deep sleep. The guidelines also recommend caregivers to wear a triple layer medical mask or N95 masks when in the same room with the ill person.