{"id":323089,"date":"2020-05-09T06:42:39","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T06:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=323089"},"modified":"2020-05-09T06:42:39","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T06:42:39","slug":"only-severe-covid-19-patients-to-be-tested-before-discharge-from-hospital-health-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/only-severe-covid-19-patients-to-be-tested-before-discharge-from-hospital-health-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"Only severe COVID-19 patients to be tested before discharge from hospital: Health Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-320692 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/virus.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"819\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/03\/virus.jpg 819w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/03\/virus-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/03\/virus-768x418.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/03\/virus-696x379.jpg 696w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/03\/virus-771x420.jpg 771w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/>The Union Health Ministry has revised its discharge guidelines for\u00a0COVID-19, stating that only severe cases will now be tested before being allowed to leave the hospital or a care centre.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">As per latest guideline \u2013 the categories of patients, including very mild, mild, pre-symptomatic and moderate cases, need not be tested before discharge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">According to health ministry, \u201cMild\/very mild\/pre-symptomatic cases admitted to a COVID 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 3 days. There will be no need for testing prior to discharge. At the time of discharge, the patient will be advised to follow the home isolation for further 7 days.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">If further clarifies, after discharge from the facility, if patients again develop symptoms of fever, cough or breathing difficulty, they will contact the COVID Care Centre or State helpline or 1075. Their health will again be followed up through tele-conference on 14thday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Moderate cases will undergo monitoring of body temperature and oxygen saturation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">If fever resolve within 3 days and the patient maintains saturation above 95% for the next 4 days (without oxygen support), such patient will be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset in case of:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Absence of fever without antipyretics<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Resolution of breathlessness<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">No oxygen requirement.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">There will be no need for testing prior to discharge and the patient will be advised to follow the home isolation for 7 days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Patient on Oxygenation whose fever does not resolve within 3 days and demand of oxygen therapy continues Such patients will be discharged only after<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Resolution of clinical symptoms<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Ability to maintain oxygen saturation for 3 consecutive days.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Severe Cases including immuno compromised (HIV patients, transplant recipients, malignancy) Discharge criteria for severe cases will be based on<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Clinical recovery<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Patient tested negative once by RT-PCR (after resolution of symptoms)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Union Health Ministry has revised its discharge guidelines for\u00a0COVID-19, stating that only severe cases will now be tested before being allowed to leave the hospital or a care centre. As per latest guideline \u2013 the categories of patients, including very mild, mild, pre-symptomatic and moderate cases, need not be tested before discharge. According to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":320692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[12750,12764],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323090,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323089\/revisions\/323090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/320692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}