Consider people with these symptoms Covid suspects; test them: Centre to states
The health ministry says appropriate medical and paramedical staff be involved in setting up and operating these RAT booths across the country
NEW DELHI : Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava have written to chief secretaries of all states or UTs to set up round the clock functional RAT (rapid antigen tests) booths at different locations, engage medical and paramedical staff, and encourage the use of home test kits, reported ANI.
"Any individual presenting with fever with or without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, the recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue, and diarrhoea should be considered as a suspect case of COVID-19 unless proven otherwise," the health ministry has said.
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In the letter, it was said that RAT testing should be allowed in both public and private institutions. These institutions can include nursing homes, clinics, primary health care centres, hospitals, dispensaries et al.
The letter further mentioned that appropriate medical and paramedical staff be involved in setting up and operating these RAT booths.
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Symptomatic people should be encouraged to do self-test, the letter mentioned. Seven such kits have been approved and two of them are available on GeM.
All RAT test results need to be uploaded on ICMR official portal cvstatus.icmr.gov.in
Most of the test kits and products are now available on GeM and cab ne procured from there.
Importantly, the letter said that all persons showing symptoms of fever with or without cough, headache, fatigue , headache, sore throat, breathlessness, bodyache, recent loss of taste or smell and diarrhoea should be considered a suspect of Covid-19. They should immediately home isolate following the guidelines mentioned by Union Health Ministry.
Also read: Hospitalisation risk from Omicron around one third of Delta, UK analysis shows
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