ICMR Issues New Guidelines; Check Who Should Get Tested & Who’s Exempted

New Delhi: Contacts of COVID positive patients do not need to undergo testing unless identified as high risk based on age or comorbidities, stated a fresh advisory by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The ICMR also released a set of new advisory on purposive testing strategies for COVID19 in the country.

The advisory on testing strategy is for early detection of symptomatic cases for quick isolation and care of elderly and individuals with comorbidities.

As per the advisory, individuals with symptoms including cough, fever, sore throat, loss of taste/smell, breathlessness or other respiratory symptoms are required to undergo testing.

The at-risk contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases need to get tested. Individuals, who have plans of international travel or international travellers arriving at the airports across the country also need to undergo testing.

People who need not be tested include:

Asymptomatic individuals in community settings;

Contacts of confirmed cases of COVID-19 unless identified as high risk based on age or comorbities.

Patients who stand discharged as per home isolation guidelines;

Patients discharged from COVID-19 facility as per revised discharge Policy

Individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travel

Patients discharged as per home isolation guidelines and COVID-19 facilities as per revised discharge policy don’t need to get tested.

Stressing on the mode of testing, the advisory stated that testing can be undertaken through RT-PCR, TrueNat, CBNAAT, CRISPR, RT-LAMP, Rapid Molecular Testing Systems or Rapid Antigen Test (RAT).