Monitoring 2 signs easily measured at home can cut COVID death risk

Simply monitoring respiration rate and blood-oxygen saturation at home can cut the risk of death due to COVID-19, finds a study.

New York: Simply monitoring respiration rate and blood-oxygen saturation at home can cut the risk of death due to COVID-19, finds a study. According to the current guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people with COVID-19 must seek medical attention when they experience overt symptoms such as "trouble breathing" and "persistent pain or pressure in the chest" -- indications that may be absent even when respiration and blood oxygen have reached dangerous levels, said researchers from the University of Washington in the US. For some people with COVID-19, by the time they feel bad enough to come to the hospital, a window for early medical intervention might have passed, they noted.