Odisha Director of Public Health Niranjan Mishra said on Saturday that as per the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), no testing is required for asymptomatic contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Mishra said that the guidelines are being given to the district officials.
Meanwhile, out of around 61,000 active cases in the state, 1100 are hospitalized till date, which is less than 2 per cent of the total active cases. He said that around 350 infected persons are in ICU.
The ICMR on Monday said that the contacts of confirmed cases of covid 19 do not require testing.
“Contacts of confirmed cases of COVID-19, unless identified as high risk on the basis of age and comorbidities, do not require testing,” it said on the objective testing strategy for COVID-19 in India. Said in an advice. The guidelines also underline that asymptomatic individuals in a community setting do not require testing.
As per the advisory, along with patients discharged as per home isolation guidelines, patients discharged from a COVID-19 facility as per the revised discharge policy and persons undertaking inter-state domestic travel are not required to be tested.
The health apex body has said that there is a need for early detection of symptomatic cases for rapid isolation and care and prompt care in elderly and persons with co-morbidities.
As per the guidelines, symptomatic persons, at-risk contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases, the elderly above 60, persons with co-morbidities, and persons with international travel and international arrival can be tested for COVID.
While in a hospital setting, the ICMR has said that the test can be done at the discretion of the treating doctor. It has been said in the guidelines that in the absence of testing facility, patients should not be referred to other facilities. All arrangements for collecting samples and transferring them to testing facilities mapped to the health facility
