Centre Dilutes Testing Rules As Cases Rise
Bengaluru, 10 May 2020:
As nationwide Covid-19 cases inched towards the 60,000 mark, the Health Ministry, in a bid to relieve pressure on testing, revised its discharge policy for Covid-19 patients. The ministry ruled out Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests for mild, very mild and moderate cases before discharge.
Officials said that as the government learnt from its own experiences and those of other countries, superfluous testing could be done away with as it would increase capacity for testing new patients and open avenues for larger surveillance.
As per the Centre’s new discharge policy for Covid-19 patients, ‘mild/very mild/pre-symptomatic cases admitted at a Covid-care facility will undergo regular temperature and pulse oximetry monitoring.’ “The patient can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and no fever for three days. There will be no need for testing prior to discharge. At the time of discharge, the patient will be advised to follow home isolation for further 7 days as per guidelines…” the new order read.
If during treatment at a Covid-care centre, a patient’s oxygen saturation dips below 95 per cent, he/she will be moved to a dedicated Covid Health Centre (DCHC). And discharge from the facility, if one develops symptoms of fever, cough or breathing difficulty again, they will be required to contact the Covid Care Centre or state helpline or 1075 immediately. “His/her health will again be followed up through tele-conference on the 14th day,” stated the new policy.
Cases clinically classified as ‘moderate cases’ will undergo monitoring of body temperature and oxygen saturation and if the fever resolves within three days and the patient maintains oxygen saturation above 95 per cent for the next four days (without oxygen support), they will be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset. They should have no fever without antipyretics, no signs of breathlessness, no oxygen requirement. In these cases, there will be no need for testing prior to discharge.
In severe cases including immuno compromised patients like those suffering from HIV, transplant recipients, the discharge criteria will be based on clinical recovery and if the patient has tested negative once by RT-PCR after the resolution of symptoms.
The Health Ministry in its briefings has expressed concern over asymptomatic patients who can unknowingly spread the virus among high-risk groups like the elderly, those with comorbidities or pregnant women and has attempted increasing community surveillance by ramping up testing. However, the rapid antibody test kits that arrived from China and were slated to be used for community surveillance failed to show accurate results leaving the exercise in a lurch. The ministry has since relied on the RT-PCR tests for identifying Covid-19 positive cases that on Saturday touched 59,622 cases across the country. Bangalore Mirror