BENGALURU: Patients under home isolation should be considered as “discharged/recovered” if they remain asymptomatic for 10 days. This was the suggestion Health Department officials made to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa during a Covid crisis review meeting on Monday.
The move is aimed at improving the recovery rate in the state. The Health Department had earlier issued guidelines that asymptomatic patients can be discharged from hospitals or Covid Care Centres even without a Covid-negative test result.
The same rule is being applied to patients in home quarantine. At the review meeting, the CM is said to have asked for fresh guidelines, encouraging patients to practise home isolation to reduce the burden on hospitals and CCCs.
Department officials also said the spike in cases is due to increased testing, especially in Bengaluru. The meeting decided to speed up the process of delivering piped oxygen pipelines to government hospitals, even at the taluk level. The CM suggested a second door-to-door survey in Bengaluru, and the government is looking to ease restrictions further including re-opening of Metro services and cinemas.