Centre On COVID-19: Only Severe Cases To Be Tested Before Discharge

The Centre on Saturday, revised guidelines with regard to the testing of COVID-19 cases stating that there would not be a need to test mild and moderate cases prior to discharge. However, in the case of severe patients, they would be required to undergo a test once before discharge, as per the revised guidelines.

As the number of coronavirus positive cases in the country came close to the 60,000 marks, the Centre decided to tweak its policy on the discharge of COVID-19 patients. Earlier, COVID-19 patients were discharged only if two of their specimens tested negative.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in its revised guidelines said that COVID-19 cases in a facility which are mild/very mild/pre-symptomatic in nature will be monitored in terms of temperature screening and pulse oximetry.

A COVID-19 patient can be discharged after 10 days of onset of symptoms and three successive days without fever. The revised guidelines spell out that there would not be a requirement for testing prior to discharge and that the patient will be advised to follow home isolation for a week in such cases.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's revised policy also outlines that such patients were admitted to COVID-19 health centres and whose symptoms get resolved within three days will be clinically classified as moderate cases. However, their oxygen saturation should be above 95% for the next four days. They will require monitoring of oxygen saturation as also screening of temperature on a regular basis and if the fever goes away in three days and the oxygen saturation levels stay above 95% for four consecutive days without oxygen support, moderate cases will also be discharged after 10 days of onset of symptoms.

Significantly, the revised guidelines state that there will be no testing for such cases prior to discharge as well.

The revised policy suggests that the country is gearing up for a big spike in the number of COVID-19 infections well into the month of June. They also mark a significant departure from the method followed by most countries when it comes to treatment and discharge of COVID-19 patients. There are widespread fears among experts that the country's fragile healthcare infrastructure would be severely tested as the numbers continue to show an upward trend.