New Delhi: In the wake of the third wave of COVID-19 in India, the Union Government has informed that the Union Health Ministry has revised the leave policy for hospitals based on the severity of the case in the backdrop of an Omicron-drive increase in infections.
“After the review meeting by the PM on the COVID situation, we have revised our discharge policy with graded severity in mild and moderate cases,” said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, during the weekly COVID-19 briefing in New Delhi.
As per the new policy, a ‘mild case discharge’ means at least 7 days after testing positive and non-emergency for 3 consecutive days from which there is no need for testing before discharge.
A ‘moderate case discharge’ is when symptoms resolve, with the patient maintaining 93% without oxygen for 3 consecutive days. Such patients can be discharged.
“According to the World Health Organization, Omicron has a substantial development advantage over Delta. Data from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada and Denmark show a reduced risk of hospitalization for Omicron compared to Delta,” Agarwal said.
A total of 28 states in India have registered the presence of the Omicron variant so far. Currently, there are 3,062 active cases of the highly contagious coronavirus out of a total of 4,868 infections. While 1,805 patients have been cured, one Omicron infected person succumbed to the deadly virus.
“A total of 115 deaths have been confirmed globally due to Omicron, of which 1 is in India,” Agarwal said. India has seen a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and the country’s active caseload stands at 9,55,319 with an average of 1.5 lakh daily cases as of Wednesday.
It has grown from 1.1% on 30th December to over 11% as of today in terms of positivity. 19 states have more than 10,000 active cases, 4 states have 5,000-10,000 and 13 states have less than 5,000.
Dr. Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR said, “There is a need to test all symptomatic cases including all at-risk contacts. Asymptomatic cases need not be tested unless they are at high risk. As per the guidelines. Accordingly, home quarantine is necessary for all contacts for 7 days.
NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr VK Paul said that people should not take more medicine on their own to protect themselves from the virus. He said, “Omicron is not like the common cold, don’t take it lightly. The current surge is due to Omicron, it has either replaced Delta or is about to replace Delta as the dominant strain. For drug use There has to be a rational approach. We are concerned about drug overuse and abuse. Don’t overuse them, it will have consequences. Drink hot water, gargle at home care.
Emerging states of concern (reporting an increase in COVID-19 cases) are Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Gujarat. The test positivity rate is 22.39% in Maharashtra, 32.18% in West Bengal, 23.1% in Delhi and 4.47% in Uttar Pradesh.
Mumbai, Bengaluru Urban, Thane, Kolkata, Chennai and Pune are the emerging districts of concern. There has been a huge jump in cases in 159 countries. The center said that eight countries in Europe are reporting twice the increase in cases in the past two weeks.
India has seen a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and the country’s active caseload stands at 9,55,319 with an average of 1.5 lakh daily cases as of Wednesday. Meanwhile, January 10 recorded the highest global single day increase of 31.39 lakh cases and there are currently over 40 million active COVID-19 cases globally.
first published:Jan. 13, 2022, 8:41 a.m.
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