NEW DELHI: As the country registered the highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases on Monday, the Indian Council of Medical Research revised the testing strategy for diagnostic tests in India expanding the criteria under which suspects will now be checked for the infection.
Under the new protocol, more individuals with influenza-like illnesses—including those hospitalized for any reason, migrants and returnees and frontline healthcare workers engaged in containment and mitigation measures will be tested for COVID-19.
The development comes as the 5,242 new coronavirus cases—the highest in a day—and 157 fresh deaths—the second-highest in a day—were reported in 24 hours. India now has a total of 96, 969 confirmed coronavirus cases of which 3,029 have died.
In the country, confirmation of COVID-19 is done through RTPCR testing method that checks for the genetic material of SARS CoV 2 in suspects.
The fresh protocol also says that all asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of confirmed cases should be tested once within 5 and 10 days of coming into contact.
However, the new strategy said that no emergency medical procedure, including delievries should be delayed for lack of tests, implying that non-COVID patients, in hospitals for other reasons, should be tested only if they show related symptoms.
“We have widened the criteria in order to catch more people who might be positive,” said an ICMR official. “ This is our effort to enhance syndromic surveillance in the country and also to ensure that people with ILI are caught in time so that they can be on the medical supervision radar.”
The earlier testing strategy suggested that symptomatic people with a history of international travel, symptomatic high-risk contacts of confirmed cases, ILI cases in hotspots and evacuation centres, hospitalised cases of severe acute respiratory illnesses and symptomatic healthcare workers treating COVID 19 patients can be tested using RTPCR technique.
The new move though welcomed by many also disappointed some healthcare professionals who said that ICMR guidelines are silent on the issue of required tests on patients who come from the red zone or those who are posted for high-risk surgeries.
“Given the unknown prevalence of COVID-19 in country, surgeons and anaesthesiologists, countrywide, are worried about the risk of contracting an infection during operation,” said Dr S P Kalantri, medical superintendent of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Wardha.
“The crucial question is- should healthcare providers order a RTPCR test for coronavirus, if they are likely to perform a surgery on a patient who comes from hotspot and is posted for high-risk surgery?,” he asked.
“For example, a two- hour surgery on oral cancer under general anesthesia can expose surgeon and anaesthesiologists to aerosol transmission despite PPE. Also, PPEs are uncomfortable and surgeons find it impossible to endure them beyond two hours. A clarity on this issue is urgently needed.”