Center Issues Revised Discharge Guidelines: Only Severe Patients to be Tested Before Discharge

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry has made some changes in the guidelines relating to testing of patients recovering from Covid-19 in the country. The new guidelines prescribe that patients who had developed a severe illness or have immunity issues to test negative through a swab test before they are discharged from the hospital.

The new guidelines are aligned with the guidelines on the 3-tier Covid-19 health facilities and the categorization of patients based on clinical severity — mild, moderate and severe.

The changed guidelines require mild, pre-symptomatic and moderate cases need not be tested before being discharged from the hospitals or the care centers. This in contrast to the previous rules of the government that prescribed testing of confirmed cases on day 14 once and then again in a span of 24 hours after treatment and if both the results are negative, the patient can be declared fit to be discharged from the health care facility.

The revised guidelines say, “For mild, very mild and pre-symptomatic cases admitted to a Covid Care Facility will undergo regular temperature and pulse monitoring. Patient can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and if they have no fever for 3 days. There will be no need for testing prior to discharge. At the time of discharge, patient will be advised to follow the home isolation for 7 more days”.

“After discharge from the facility, if they again develop symptoms of fever, cough or breathing difficulty, he will contact the COVID Care Centre or State helpline or 1075. Their health will again be followed up through tele-conference on 14th day.”