New Delhi: The Centre has released revised guidelines for home isolation of mild and asymptomatic Covid cases.
It also advised people not to rush for self-medication, blood investigation or radiological imaging like chest X-ray or CT scan without consultation of treating medical officer.
Patients under home isolation can end isolation after at least seven days have passed from testing positive and if there is no fever for three days in a row. They will continue to wear masks. There is no need for re-testing after the home isolation ends.
Earlier, home isolation ended after 10 days from the onset of symptoms.
India is witnessing an exponential rise in the number of Covid cases, which is believed to be driven by the Omicron variant, the Centre said on Wednesday while highlighting that the country's R nought value that indicates the spread of the infection is 2.69, higher than the 1.69 recorded during the peak of the pandemic's second wave. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava said the spike in the number of Covid cases is being witnessed in cities and "the Omicron variant is the predominant circulating strain".
Till date every Omicron patient had to be hospitalised, sources said. Since this is a new variant of the Coronavirus, the National Centre for Disease Control is documenting every patient to understand the symptoms and severity.
Asymptomatic patients are laboratory-confirmed cases who are not experiencing any symptoms and have an oxygen saturation of more than 93 per cent.
Elderly patients aged more than 60 years and those with co-morbid conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung/liver/kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, shall only be allowed home isolation after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer, the guidelines said.
Patients suffering from immune-compromised status (HIV, transplant recipients, cancer therapy) are not recommended for home isolation and shall only be allowed home isolation after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer, they added.
India on Wednesday recorded the first death linked to the Omicron variant after the samples of a man in Rajasthan's Udaipur, who died last week, showed the presence of the variant, sources in the Union Health ministry said.
The 73-year-old man, who was found infected with Omicron in genome sequencing and who had tested negative for the infection twice, died in a Udaipur hospital on December 31, they added.
He died due to post-Covid pneumonia coupled with comorbidities — diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hypothyroidism — Udaipur Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Dinesh Kharadi had said.
The man was found Covid positive on December 15 and had symptoms like fever, cough and rhinitis and therefore, was admitted to the hospital.
A total of 2,135 cases of Omicron variant have been detected across 24 states and UTs, out of which, 828 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Wednesday.
Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 653 cases followed by Delhi at 464, Kerala 185, Rajasthan 174, Gujarat 154 and Tamil Nadu 121 cases.
India saw a single-day rise of 58,097 new Coronavirus infections, the highest in around 199 days, taking the total tally of cases to 3,50,18,358. The active cases were recorded above 2 lakh after around 81 days, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The country's Covid death toll has climbed to 4,82,551 with 534 daily fatalities, the data stated.
More than 1 crore (1,24,02,515) COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to children in the 15-18 age group since the inoculation drive began for them on January 3, the ministry said on Wednesday. With this, the cumulative doses administered in the country has increased to over 148.58 crore (1,48,58,19,491), it said.