Anti-Covid measures: Telangana ahead of Centre

Hyderabad: Centre’s recommendations to States on Friday following rapid rise in Covid-19 cases, believed to be driven by Omicron variant, is yet another instance of Telangana remaining one step ahead of the curve when it comes to introducing novel measures to fight the pandemic. Realising the possibility of community transmission across major Indian cities, Ministry […]

Hyderabad: Centre’s recommendations to States on Friday following rapid rise in Covid-19 cases, believed to be driven by Omicron variant, is yet another instance of Telangana remaining one step ahead of the curve when it comes to introducing novel measures to fight the pandemic.

Realising the possibility of community transmission across major Indian cities, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Friday directed States not to wait for Covid positive reports but to start treatment of patients based on their symptoms.

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Such a concept was first introduced by Telangana during the peak of the Delta wave when the State Health Department had decided to consider all individuals in Telangana with typical Covid symptoms as positive cases and immediately isolate and start treatment, instead of waiting for confirmation tests.

The use of rapid antigen tests, door-to-door survey, distributing home kits and symptomatic treatment without waiting for RT-PCR or even rapid antigen reports are already being implemented in a big way in Telangana, senior health officials said.

The same recommendations were issued by MoHFW on Friday. “Any individual presenting with fever with/without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue and diarrhoea should be considered as suspect case of Covid-19. While waiting for test results, they should be advised to immediately isolate themselves and follow home isolation guidelines,” MoHFW recommended.

To cut down on waiting time for RT-PCR tests, the State government during the Delta wave had decided to use rapid antigen tests and quickly start treatment. The MoHFW came up with the same recommendation.

“RT-PCR-based testing leads to delays in confirming diagnosis due to its turnaround time of about 5-8 hours. Therefore, you are encouraged to increase testing by widespread use of rapid antigen tests (RATs) in such specific situations where RT-PCR testing poses challenges,” the MoHFW said.

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