he Indian Council of Medical Research revised its strategyto fight the spread of the new coronavirus on Saturday, saying all hospitalisedpatients with severe acute respiratory illness, shortness of breath and havingfever and cough will now be tested for COVID-19 infection.
The new ICMR guidelines also said asymptomatic direct andhigh-risk contacts of a confirmed case should be tested once between day 5 andday 14 of coming in his/her contact.
The apex body for biomedical research revised its strategyin view of a spurt in coronavirus cases in the country this week. The newstrategy aims to contain the spread of infection more effectively and toprovide reliable diagnosis to all individuals meeting the inclusion criteria ofCOVID-19 testing.
Till now, all asymptomatic individuals who undertookinternational travel in the last 14 days and developed symptoms, allsymptomatic contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases and all symptomatic healthcare workers were being tested for the infection as per the guidelines.
The coronavirus cases rose to 258 on Saturday in India withfresh cases being reported from various parts of the country.
India has so far witnessed cases of COVID-19 mostly relatedto travel and local transmission from imported cases. Community transmission ofthe disease has not been documented till now.
Once community transmission is documented, the above testingstrategy will undergo changes to evolve into stage-appropriate testingstrategy, ICMR said.
Advisory for testing are being reviewed and updatedperiodically.
The testing strategy is reviewed by the National Task Forceconstituted by Secretary DHR & DG, ICMR and Chaired by VK Paul, a member ofthe NITI Aayog.