Ministry of health issues revised discharge policy for covid 19 patients
New Delhi: Changes have been made on behalf of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India for the treatment of corona virus infected patients. Changes have been made in the policy of discharging patients after recovering from corona virus. The new policy has been issued today (9 May) morning. The biggest change in the policy of discharging patients has been that only testing of serious patients is considered necessary. That is, the need for testing before discharge in light cases has been eliminated. If a patient shows no symptoms or his condition is normal, then he can be discharged in 10 days.
In the last week, India has added nearly 20,000 cases of Covid-19 and the doubling rate has also worsened, leading to concerns that the healthcare infrastructure could be overwhelmed soon and hospitals may run out of beds.
The ministry of health and family welfare, in its revised guidelines, said that mild/very mild/pre-symptomatic cases admitted to a Covid-19 care facility will undergo regular temperature and pulse oximetry monitoring.
The patient can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and no fever for three days. “There will be no need for testing prior to discharge,” the revised guidelines said. It added that at the time of discharge, the patient will be advised to follow home isolation for seven days.
The revised policy further said that patients admitted to Covid-19 health centres, whose symptoms resolve within three days and who maintain oxygen saturation above 95 per cent for the next four days, will be clinically classified as “moderate cases”.
