New Delhi: As India reports an increasing number of Covid-19 cases, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava wrote to chief secretaries of all states/Union Territories to set up round the clock functional RAT booths at different locations, engage medical and paramedical staff, and encourage the use of home test kits
The Health Ministry also identified 8 symptoms and asked states to urge people to go for Covid-19 if they had the symptoms."Any individual who has fever with/without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, a recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue, and diarrhea should be considered as a suspect case of COVID-19 unless proven otherwise," the Union Health Ministry announced today.
"A rise in Covid-19 cases accompanied by an increase in positivity rate is being documented in various parts of the country. Early testing of suspect patients and their contacts and isolating them expeditiously are one of the key measures to curb transmission of SARS-CoV-2," the letter said.
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Mentioning that as of now India has a network of 3117 molecular testing laboratories, the letter adds, "Based on the previous experience, it has been observed that if the number of the cases rise above a certain threshold, RTPCR-based testing leads to delays in confirming diagnosis due to its turnaround time of about 5-8 hours. Therefore you are encouraged to increase testing by widespread rise of rapid antigen test (RATs) in such specific situations where RTPCR testing poses challenges."
Any individual presenting with fever with/without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, the recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue, and diarrhea should be considered as a suspect case of COVID-19 unless proven otherwise: Union Health Ministry https://t.co/3IL7wWLfo2
— ANI (@ANI) December 31, 2021
As cases continue to rise, Maharashtra reported 8,067 fresh COVID cases (including 4 Omicron cases), 1,766 recoveries, and 8 deaths today. West Bengal has recorded 3,451 fresh COVID cases, 1,510 recoveries, and 7 deaths today.
