Fresh guidelines for COVID-19 patients: No testing prior to discharge

New Delhi : The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has released fresh guidelines and discharge rules for the coronavirus patients with moderate or mild symptoms.

The newly issued guidelines have cut short the number of days of stay of a patient in COVID facility or hospital for mild and moderate cases.

As mentioned in the new guidelines, a patient with mild symptoms can be discharged within 10 days if they either show no fever or the symptoms subside within three days. Furthermore, no testing will be required prior to discharge of such patients.

As regards the patients who are discharged, the health authorities will follow up their cases on 14th day through teleconference while the patients who are suffering from severe symptoms will be kept in hospital under observation until clinical recovery, the revised advisory read.

In an official release, MoHFW said, "This is interesting as this would not only save the number of tests, and by default help in new testing but also ensure that more patients in severe condition can be accommodated at the COVID facilities and hospitals."

The total number of coronavirus cases in India is inching towards the 60,000-mark. On Saturday, the Ministry of Health updated the national Covid-19 tally to 59,662. There are 39,834 active coronavirus cases in the country, 17,846 patients have been cured or discharged while 1,981 people have died from the deadly contagion.