The state government, in a video conference organised today afternoon from 1pm till 4pm, discussed the implementation of the new ICMR guidelines related to COVID testing, implementation and training for Proning exercises and conducting a house to house survey for identifying potential COVID patients.

Subsequent to the discussion, the following instructions have been given with immediate effect:

COVID Testing

1. Patients once tested positive for COVID will not be administered another test to confirm the absence of the virus. It will be assumed that on the completion of the medication and absence of symptoms for three days consecutively, the patient is no longer infected with COVID-19. FALLOUT: Will government departments, banks, corporate offices and educational institutes be instructed NOT to ask for COVID negative report prior to joining work? Will the onus fall on the individual in case she/he has been in home quarantine and not hospitalised - to define herself/himself as COVID negtive?
2. COVID Patients who have been admitted to hospital will not be required to go through another COVID test before being discharged. FALLOUT: Will this result in quick discharge to accomodate the rising exodus of patients looking for hospital care? Will the rate of admission and discharge increase in the absence of a confirmed COVID negative test?
3. Patients with standard COVID symptoms, viz. Fever, Cough n Cold, Headache, Chapped throat, difficulty in breathing, body pain, absence of taste of smell, fatigue and diarrhoea will be classified as COVID patients unless any other illness is daignosed. FALLOUT: The risk of a COVID patient going in for multiple tests in laboratories making the laboratoy area more prone to infection.

Proning

The health department has instructed the training for the Proning technique be provided to doctors and nurses, so that preliminary care can be given in the absence of Oxygen supply infrastructure. Proning has already been explained in this post on UdaipurTimes.

House to House Survey

In the first phase of the house to house survey for identifying patients who show COVID symptoms the availability of medicines is a cause of concern.  When the house to house survey is conducted, the team identifies people who are having COVID symptoms. Once identified, the team gives a regular home quarantine medical kit to the patient, so that the infection is cured before it reaches a nasty level. However, as per the survey, it was found that the medicine availability is not enough to support such patients who have these symptoms. The administration is looking at facilitating medicines, which are only 40% of the demand, that has been sent to the state department.