Discharge certificate should say that no Covid test needed: State directive

Kolkata: State Health department has made it mandatory for the hospitals to mention on the discharge certificate of Covid recovered patients that they no longer require a Covid test while being released and hospital doctors have released the patients as they have recovered.

The step has been taken by the Health department after it found that in some cases

COVID-19 recovered patients were asked by the neighbours to produce a Covid negative certificate. In some cases the recovered patients had been subjected to harassment.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in its directives asked the state government that if an infected patient shows no symptoms after 10 days from the day he/she first complained about the Covid symptoms, there is no need to perform a COVID-19 test on such patients. These patients should however spend seven days at home isolation. The Health department also published advertisements on various newspapers to make people aware. Despite the campaign, many Covid recovered patients were allegedly harassed where local people demanded Covid negative certificates.

The Health department has now given clear instruction to hospitals that the discharge certificate will clearly mention that the patient no longer requires to take any Covid tests. Meanwhile, the health department has issued another advisory on case management for Covid patients. The experts from the protocol monitoring team as deputed by the department, visited some Covid hospitals and found some lacuna in practice. On the basis of the observations, they have made some recommendations. These include every hospital that has been advised to arrange isolation wards for suspected Covid patients and stabilize the patients before any

transfer to the dedicated Covid hospitals. All the hospitals or nursing homes should not discharge Covid positive patients requiring medical attention without assured admission in Covid hospitals.

Referral case summary should be attached during transfer.