No need to test contacts of COVID patients unless identified as 'high-risk': Centre

Owing to the alarming surge in Covid cases in the country, the government's top medical body has issued a new advisory directing that the contacts of COVID-19 patients unless identified as high-risk, don't need to be tested.

They also said individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travels do not need to get tested either.

Asymptomatic individuals in community settings, patients who stand discharged as per home isolation guidelines, also patients discharged from a COVID-19 facility and individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travel need not be tested, said the Indian Council of Medical Research or ICMR.

Those with cough, fever, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, breathlessness and other respiratory symptoms) individuals should be tested, said the body.

Also, international travellers arriving at Indian airports, seaports and ports are to be tested, it said.

No emergency procedure - like surgeries and deliveries - should be delayed for lack of a test, said the medical body.

Patients should not be referred to other facilities for lack of a testing facility, it said.

Asymptomatic patients undergoing surgical/non-surgical invasive procedures including pregnant women in or near labour who are hospitalised for delivery should not be tested unless warranted or symptoms develop, said the advisory.

Five to 10 per cent of the active COVID cases this time so far needed hospitalisation but the situation is dynamic and may change rapidly, the Centre said on Monday and asked states to keep a watch on cases under home isolation and in hospitals.

Genome Sequencing is done for surveillance purposes and is not required to be undertaken for treatment purposes, said the ICMR, adding that genome sequencing is to be performed only in a subset of positive samples as per recommendations of INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance Consortium).