ICMR has released a new guideline with regards to testing for Covid19. The new guideline said, that any individual with fever, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, the recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue, diarrhea should be considered as a suspect case of Covid-19 unless proven otherwise by confirmation of another etiology.
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The Indian Council of Medical Research, in its new testing guideline issued on Tuesday, has talked about reducing RT-PCR tests to take the load off the existing laboratories. This guideline comes in a backdrop where the Centre has repeatedly asked states and Union territories to increase the proportion of RT-PCR tests to at least 70 percent of all Covid-19 tests being conducted.
ICMR has recommended that there should be no RT-PCR tests if
- An individual has tested positive by rapid antigen test.
- An individual has tested positive once by RT-PCR test.
- One has completed 10 days home isolation period with no fever for the last three days.
- At the time of hospital discharge.
- A healthy individual is undertaking interstate domestic travel. While this is a requirement imposed by states, ICMR said this can completely be removed to reduce the load on laboratories.
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As the number of coronavirus cases is surging, the time taken to carry out and process an RT-PCR has gone up to over 72 hours. In this regard, the ICMR is recommending bringing back the focus on Rapid Antigen Testing for mass detection.
