The Union Health ministry issued revised guidelines for discharge of COVID-19 patients in India on Saturday, 9 May, which stated that mild and presymptomatic patients could get discharged without an RT-PCR test, after 10 days of symptom onset and no fever for three days.
For moderate cases, if fever is resolved within three days and no oxygen support is needed, the patients can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset. For those whose symptoms persist and oxygen therapy is still needed, discharge is only permitted after clinical symptoms have been resolved and oxygen saturation maintained for three consecutive days.
In these cases, again, there is no need for an RT-PCR test once the symptoms have been resolved. After discharge, the patients will have to follow home isolation for 7 days.
A patient was earlier required to test negative twice before getting discharged from the COVID-19 facility.
The need for this test now remains only for severe cases, who can be discharged only after clinical recovery and once patients have tested negative once by RT-PCR.
Under mild cases, the guidelines stated, “At any point of time prior to discharge from COVID Care Centre, if the oxygen saturation dips below 95%, the patient is moved to Dedicated COVID Health Centre. After discharge from the facility, if he/she again develops symptoms of fever, cough or breathing difficulty he will contact the COVID Care Centre or state helpline or 1075. His/her health will again be followed up through teleconference on 14th day.”
"As we learn more about the illness, our guidelines will also evolve based on the learning from our experience, studies conducted by other countries and guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the top health body in US," NDTV quoted a senior official as saying. The new guidelines will help reduce the burden on the country's hospitals if the number of severe coronavirus cases surge in coming days, the official added.
The development could be crucial considering the fact that almost 80 percent of the cases are asymptomatic, meaning they do not show any symptoms even after getting infected.
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