Isolation can be reduced to 5 days for +ve health staff

Mumbai: District authorities can reduce the isolation period of Covid-positive healthcare workers from seven days to five if there is a severe shortage of manpower. Anticipating that a huge surge in hospitalisations could overwhelm hospitals, the public health department has released a new protocol with the shortened isolation period.

Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary (health), wrote to all divisional commissioners, district collectors, municipal commissioners and CEOs of zilla parishads stating, “Considering that Omicron variant may infect large number of persons in short time, and the need of trained staff, district authorities can reduce isolation period for trained human resource from 7 days to 5 days as per need in consultation with public health department.”

The new protocol for isolation of healthcare providers states that if the medical staffer is asymptomatic and fully vaccinated, he/she can resume work after one week of isolation. That duration can be further curtailed by two days in case of manpower shortage. If the person is asymptomatic but unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, a repeat RT-PCR test will be carried out before they are allowed back. If they test positive, RT-PCR will be repeated after three days and, if negative, they will return to work. Symptomatic healthcare workers will be admitted to hospital, depending on the severity of the disease.

Currently, there is not much uniformity in the isolation norms. A state official said that since a majority of healthcare workers are fully vaccinated and have negligible symptoms, they may be called to work early.

The US, too, recently shortened the isolation time for healthcare workers from 10 days to a week if they are asymptomatic and test negative, and said it could further be curtailed to five if the manpower crunch is significant.

Dr Deepak Baid, former president of the Association of Medical Consultants, said that unless there is a severe shortage of staffers, the isolation period should be the same as that for any patient, which is 10 days.