Policy
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COVID-19 patients can end home isolation after 17 days: Revised guidelines

The revised guidelines released by the health ministry reiterated that patients, who are pre-symptomatic or have very mild symptoms, can opt for home isolation if they have the requisite self-isolation facility at their residence so as to avoid contact with other family members.

Nidhi Sharma ,
ET Bureau

Updated On May 12, 2020 at 08:10 AM IST

NEW DELHI: A Covid-19 pre-symptomatic patient or one with mild symptoms will be allowed to end home isolation without undergoing an RT-PCR confirmatory test after 17 days of onset of symptoms. Almost a fortnight after it issued guidelines for home isolation for pre-symptomatic patients or those with mild symptoms, the health ministry revised the standard operating procedures on Monday.

Under the revised guidelines, a person will be allowed to end home isolation after 17 days of onset of symptoms and if he has had no fever for 10 days. In case of apre-symptomatic Covid-19 patient, the 17 days will be calculated from the date he had given his first throat sample. Earlier, a patient could end his home isolation if symptoms were clinically resolved and the district surveillance medical officer certified him as Covid-19 free after a test.

The patient will need to fill an undertaking before undergoing home isolation that if his condition deteriorates or if any family member develops symptoms, he will report to the district surveillance team or get in touch with the call centre at 1075.

The change comes after the ministry altered discharge policy, which does not make testing mandatory for a mild patient if he does not have fever for three days. Joint secretary (health) Lav Agarwal said the policy had been changed learning from experiences of other countries.