Only Severe Covid-19 Patients Need To Be Tested Before Discharge: Union Health Ministry

The Union Health Ministry on Saturday (9 May) revised its guidelines for discharge of Covid-19 patients from hospitals, saying that only patients with severe illness need to be tested negative for Coronavirus before discharge, reports The Hindu.

Other categories of patients, including very mild, mild, pre-symptomatic and moderate cases, need not be tested before discharge after resolutions of the symptoms, the guidelines added.

As per the guidelines, mild, very mild, pre-symptomatic cases admitted to a Covid Care Facility will undergo regular temperature and pulse oximetry monitoring.

“Patient can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and if they have no fever for three days. There will be no need for testing prior to discharge,” the revised guidelines said.

It adds that at the time of discharge, patients will be advised to follow the home isolation for seven more days.

However, after discharge from the facility, if the patients develop symptoms of fever, cough or breathing difficulty, they will contact the Covdi Care Centre or State helpline or 1075. Their health will again be followed up through teleconference on the fourteenth day.

Moderate cases will undergo monitoring of body temperature and oxygen saturation.

“If the fever resolve within 3 days and the patient maintains saturation above 95% for the next 4 days (without oxygen support), such patient will be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset in case of: absence of fever without antipyretics, resolution of breathlessness, no oxygen requirement,” the guidelines added.

In such cases, there will be no need for testing prior to discharge, and the patient will be advised to follow the home isolation for seven days.

The discharge criteria for severe cases, including immunocompromised like HIV patients, transplant recipients, and those having malignancy will be based on clinical recovery and of patient tested negative once by RT-PCR (after the resolution of symptoms), the revised policy stated.