Photo Credits: Hanif Sindhi
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has released a Covid testing revised advisory in the wake of a surge in coronavirus cases across India. According to the ICMR fresh advisory, those who have come in contact with coronavirus patients do not need testing unless identified as ‘high-risk’ “based on age or comorbidities”.
The apex health body has also issued detailed guidelines on who should and should not get tested for Covid. Following is the list of the guidelines:
Testing in community settings:
- Symptomatic (cough, fever, sore throat, loss of taste and/or smell, breathlessness and/or other respiratory symptoms) individuals.
- At-risk contacts of laboratory confirmed cases. [At-risk contacts are elderly (above 60 years) and individuals with co-morbidity such as diabetes, hypertension, chronic lung or kidney disease, malignancy, obesity etc].
- Individuals undertaking international travel (as per country-specific requirements).
- International travellers arriving at Indian airports/seaports/ports of entries as per laid down guidelines.
Testing in hospital settings: - Testing may be undertaken as per discretion of the treating doctor with the following considerations:
- No emergency procedure (including surgeries and deliveries) should be delayed for lack of a test.
- Patients should not be referred to other facilities for lack of a testing facility. All arrangements should be made to collect and transfer samples to testing facilities, mapped to the health facility.
People who need not be tested: - Asymptomatic individuals in community settings
- Contacts of confirmed cases of Covid-19 unless identified as high risk based on age or comorbidities
- Patients who stand discharged as per home isolation guidelines
- Patients being discharged from a Covid-19 facility as per revised discharge policy
- Individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travel
