Prospective cohort study of non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients: determining length of isolation and patient clinical development at home (COVID-HOME study)

The UMCG is conducting research among COVID-19 patients who are not admitted to a hospital and their family members. The researchers want to gain more insight into the impact and consequences of the disease on these patients and their families, in order to create guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 patients at home. The necessity and importance of this research is great in the current phase of relaxing all measures and the possible new outbreaks that result. Goal More knowledge is needed to properly treat patients isolated at home and to improve guidelines. With this study, researchers want to gain more knowledge about how the disease progresses in this group of patients. The knowledge can help to provide patients with the right treatment in the future and to be able to determine in time when their condition will worsen. Greater insight into the contagiousness of these patients will help determine how long they should remain in isolation and when they can leave their home without the risk of transmitting the virus to others. Research design Persons who test positive are visited at home weekly to obtain clinical and laboratory data. This is done by, among other things, taking a nose/throat swab (cotton swab) and blood. To see whether the virus spreads through other routes, urine, feces and semen or vaginal swab are also collected. Nasal and throat swabs are also taken from family members of people who have tested positive to determine if and when they become infected. Executive parties The necessity and importance of this research is great in the current phase of relaxing all measures and the possible new outbreaks that result. The research is carried out in collaboration with the GGDs.