No Covid Test for Contacts of Confirmed Cases, Says ICMR; So Who Needs to Get Tested? And When?

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Monday said that contacts of confirmed Covid-19 patients are not required to undertake a Covid-19 test unless they are identified as ‘high-risk’ based on age or co-morbidities.

So who needs to get tested? And who doesn’t? What are the symptoms you should look for?

Q1. As per ICMR guidelines, these are the following individuals who do not need to get tested:

-Asymptomatic people

-People who ended home isolation

-People discharged from COVID-facility

-Contacts of confirmed cases (unless at high risk)

-Individuals undertaking inter-state travel

Q2.Who has to take the test?

-Symptomatic individuals

-At-risk contacts of confirmed cases

-Individuals undertaking international travel (as per country-specific guidelines)

-International travellers who are arriving at Indian airports, seaports, or other ports of entry.

Q3. Who are High-Risk Individuals?

Individuals aged over 60 years and/or having any comorbidities like diabetes, obesity, chronic lung or kidney disease, hypertension, etc., are considered to be at risk. The ICMR has also suggested that all symptomatic patients and at-risk contacts should get tested at the earliest.

Q4. What else the advisory state?

-No emergency procedure- surgeries and deliveries should be delayed for lack of test

-Admitted patients in the hospitals should only be tested once a week

-Hospitals must make arrangements to transfer samples to testing facilities, mapped to the health facility

-Asymptomatic patients undergoing surgeries and pregnant women in labour should not get tested for COVID-19 unless symptoms develop

What are the available Covid-19 tests?

-RT-PCR

-TrueNat

-CBNAAT

-CRISPR

-RT-LAMP

-Rapid Molecular Testing Systems

-Rapid Antigen Test (RAT).

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