West Bengal govt revises protocol to discharge Covid-19 patients

KOLKATA: From now on, only those with severe Covid-19 symptoms will need to undergo RT-PCR tests, that too only one and not two consecutive tests that were mandatory earlier, for their release from the hospital after treatment. Covid-positive patients with mild and moderate symptoms will no longer require the mandatory negative confirmatory tests before they are sent home.


So far, a Covid-positive patient had to test negative twice in two consecutive tests conducted within 48 hours for release from the hospital. But the policy to release patients has been changed in the new guideline that the state health department, in sync with the Union ministry of health and family welfare, has issued.

The revised policy, doctors said, will help in saving a lot of resources, that is, the RT-kits to be precise. For example, a doctor from Medical College Hospital, Kolkata, who got Covid-19 infection about three weeks ago, kept testing positive even as he had become asymptomatic during his treatment ID&BG Hospital. Consequently, he had to undergo several rounds of tests before two consecutive swab samples tested negative before he was discharged from the hospital.

“The follow-up tests lead to massive wastage of resources. In many cases, patients keep testing positive through several follow-up tests even after they have become asymptomatic days ago. Now, these resources can be utilised in diagnosing new cases,” said a doctor involved in the treatment of Covid patients in the state.

For the purpose of the new discharge policy, Covid patients have been divided into three categories — mild/very mild/pre-asymptomatic cases, moderate and severe cases. All categories of patients will have to be monitored in hospitals.

For the mild category, doctors will continue to monitor fever and pulse oximetry. According to the revised policy, a patient can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset if he/she has not had fever for three days, without undergoing the mandatory negative confirmatory test. The patient needs to be in home isolation for seven days.

In moderate cases, a patient can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset if his/her fever subsides within three days and maintains an oxygen saturation above 95% for the next four days, without any external support. In severe cases, that include immune compromised patients, they can be discharged only after clinical recovery and after testing once by RT-PCR.

According to doctors, they could not discharge even mild or asymptomatic cases even as they did not need further hospital care because of the mandatory negative confirmation. Now, in addition to saving resources, the new policy will also allow them to free beds for those who need it.