'Emergency procedures can't be delayed for lack of tests'

Kolkata: State health department has issued guidelines regarding Covid testing giving a detailed outline as to who must take Covid tests.

It said that symptomatic individuals can undergo Covid tests in case of community setting. Those who have come in contact with the infected patients can also undertake a Covid test.

Symptomatic pregnant women or asymptomatic pregnant women with a history of contact in and around the labour room have to take a test.

Individuals undertaking international travel or the international travelers arriving at the airport have to undergo Covid tests.

In case of hospital settings, no emergency procedure including surgeries or deliveries should be delayed for lack of a test, said the guidelines. Patients once tested positive for Covid should not be retested. Admitted patients should only be tested if found symptomatic for Covid.

"Elective procedures can be considered after 2 weeks of Covid positivity in patients without comorbid conditions. Concerned doctors will decide regarding elective procedures in patients with co-morbidity," read the guidelines.

The health department has also given a clear instruction that patients who stand discharged as per home isolation guidelines do not require to take a test. Patients who are discharged from a Covid facility as per revised discharged policy no longer require the tests.

Incidentally, the state health department has already asked all the laboratories that genome sequencing should only be performed on those who have returned from the foreign countries or on those who have come in contact with the foreign returnees.

Genome sequencing cannot be done on all Covid positive patients.

Health department has already directed all the Chief Medical Officers of Health in the districts and also civic bodies to increase daily

Covid tests.