WHO releases new clinical advice on treating COVID-19 patients

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday released new clinical advice for treating patients with COVID-19, including those with persistent symptoms after recovery, and also said it advised using low-dose anticoagulants to prevent blood clots.

“Other new things in the guidelines are that patients with COVID-19 at home should use pulse oximetry, which measures oxygen levels, so you can determine if any at home is deteriorating. and that it would be preferable to receive hospital care. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said at a UN briefing in Geneva.

WHO has advised clinicians to put patients in an awake supine position, on their foreheads, which helps improve oxygen flow, she said.

“We also recommend, we suggest the use of low-dose anticoagulants to prevent blood clots from forming in the blood vessels. We suggest using lower doses rather than higher doses because higher doses can lead to other problems, ”said Harris.

She added that a team of independent experts led by the WHO, currently in the city of Wuhan in central China, where the first human cases were detected in December 2019, is expected to leave quarantine in both. coming days to continue work with Chinese researchers on the origins of the virus.

She declined to engage on reports of delays in vaccine deployment in the European Union. She said she did not have specific data and that WHO’s priority was for health workers in all countries to be vaccinated in the first 100 days of the year.

AstraZeneca, which developed its shot with the University of Oxford, told the EU on Friday it could not meet agreed supply targets until the end of March.