Will Telangana State abide by new Indian Council of Medical Research discharge norms?

• ICMR says those with very mild, mild and even moderate symptoms could be discharged without any RT-PCR test after 10 days of symptoms onset, if there is no fever for three days. But they have to be advised to be in home quarantine for seven days without fail

• Eatala Rajender earlier opined they had decided to retain even mild cases in Gandhi as most of them were staying in joint families or in small houses where home isolation or quarantine is very difficult

•Telangana has only 376 active cases at present at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad, which would be left with only a few cases if new guidelines are enforced

•This will mean enormous burden on the already stretched ground staff in monitoring the health conditions of discharged people in self-quarantine

Hyderabad: The Telangana health department is in a dilemma over implementation of fresh guidelines of ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) pertaining to discharge of Covid-19 patients.

According to the new guidelines, those with very mild, mild and even moderate symptoms could be discharged without any RT-PCR test after 10 days of symptoms onset, if there is no fever for three days. But they have to be advised to be in home quarantine for seven days without fail.

Until now RT-PCR test was conducted twice in a gap of 24 hours on the Covid-10 infected patient to detect the presence of pathogens in the body and the patient report has to come negative twice before he or she could be considered for discharge. However, now RT-PCR test will only be done for severe cases, and even if it comes negative once, they could be discharged from hospital.

Telangana has only 376 active cases at present. As many as 727 of the total 1,132 patients have been discharged so far in the State.

If fresh guidelines are implemented, Gandhi hospital will have only a handful of active cases.

However, what is bothering health officials is transmission risk to others, if the discharged mild and moderate cases don't adhere to self-quarantine rules strictly, after returning home. If the seven-day quarantine rule is ignored, it will lead to a big problem for others in the society, a doctor said. Health Minister Eatala Rajender also commented on this issue a few days back. Before issuing discharge guidelines in detail, the union health ministry officials in New Delhi stated earlier that those with mild symptoms could be discharged without conducting RT-PCR test again on them.

Reacting to it, Eatala opined that they had decided to retain even mild cases in Gandhi hospital as most of them were staying in joint families or in small houses where home isolation or quarantine is very

difficult.

However, now that guidelines have been issued, it remains to be seen what would be Telangana stand on this. The Health Minister in a video conference with all DMHOs held on Saturday said that Gandhi Hospital would have only a few patients left if fresh guidelines are followed. They all have to be kept in home quarantine for a week, which means more burden on the already stretched ground-level staff to keep continuous track of their health condition.