India’s new testing guidelines say that only ‘severe’ COVID patients will be tested once before discharge from hospital

• On Saturday (May 9), the Indian government revised the norms saying that only ‘severe’ or critically-ill covid patients will be tested before the discharge from the hospital — and only once.
  
• According to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Founder and Executive Chairperson of Biocon, it is important to ensure that the patients are negative to Coronavirus infection to contain its spread.
  
• As of now, patients were only discharged if they were tested negative at least twice in COVID-19 swab tests — at an interval of 24 hours.
  
• According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India tested over 15 lakh samples for Coronavirus, as on May 9, 2020.

Testing in India has gone up multi-folds after the percentage of COVID-19 infections surged significantly. But the new guidelines with regard to the discharge of Coronavirus patients does not resonate well with experts.

On Saturday (May 9), the Indian government revised the norms saying that only ‘severe’ or critically-ill covid patients will be tested before the discharge from the hospital — and only once. However, it suggests home isolation for seven days after the discharge.

According to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Founder and Executive Chairperson of Biocon, it is important to ensure that the patients are negative to Coronavirus infection to contain its spread. “No Tests Before Discharge: New Policy For Mild, Moderate COVID-19 Cases - don’t understand the logic. We need to ensure they are negative at the time of discharge or else they can infect others,” she said in a tweet.

As per the Ministry guidelines, mild and pre-symptomatic patients in the hospital will undergo regular temperature and pulse oximetry monitoring. They can be discharged in 10 days, if there is no fever for three days and the oxygen saturation is above 95% in the next four days. And these cases will be referred to as moderate cases.

As of now, patients were only discharged if they were tested negative at least twice in COVID-19 swab tests — at an interval of 24 hours.

Researchers anticipate that the Coronavirus infection could peak in June and July. In fact, there might be multiple waves before the curve is flattened. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of Coronavirus infections in India have spiked to 59,662, as on May 9.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India tested over 15 lakh samples for Coronavirus, as on May 9, 2020.

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