Even as Covid cases are rising in the national capital, the Delhi government has issued an order directing that no emergency procedure should be delayed for the lack of a Covid-19 test.
The new guidelines for testing of Covid-19 patients was issued on June 2 by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) and were based on the new guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research on May 18.
The major difference in the order was while the ICMR allowed both asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case to be tested once between day 5 and day 10 of coming into contact, the DGHS says direct and high-risk contacts diabetic, hypertension, cancer patients and senior citizens of a confirmed case are to be tested once between day five and day 10 of coming into contact with a confirmed case.
It has eliminated all those who are direct contacts of an infected person but do not have comorbidities or are not senior citizens.
"No emergency procedure (including deliveries) should be delayed for lack of test," it said, adding samples can be sent for testing if any other criteria is fulfilled as per the order.
The DGHS order says all symptomatic (ILI symptoms) individuals with history of international travel in the last 14 days, all symptomatic contacts of laboratory confirmed cases, all symptomatic healthcare workers or frontline workers involved in containment and mitigation of Covid-19, and all patients of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) are to be tested.
Also, all symptomatic people within hotspots or containment zones, all hospitalised patients who develop ILI symptoms, all symptomatic among returnees and migrants within seven days of illness are to be tested, the order said.
It says that the ILI case is defined as "one with acute respiratory infection with fever more than 38 degrees Celsius and cough".
Similarly, SARI case is defined as "one with acute respiratory infection with fever more than 38 degrees Celsius and cough and requires hospitalisation".
All testing in these categories have been recommended to be done by "real time RT-PCR tests only", the order said.
The coronavirus cases in the national capital witnessed a jump of 1,359 cases in a day, taking the total tally to 25,004 while the death toll has reached 650, the Delhi Health Department said on Thursday.
( With inputs from IANS )