ICMR Testing Guidelines: Corona test can be done if symptoms are seen, which people will not be tested - ICMR issued advisory

COVID 19 Testing Advisory: ICMR has issued a new advisory for the testing of Covid-19 in India, in which the complete details of who should get tested and who should not. According to the new advisory of ICMR, a corona test of these people can be done.

Asymptomatic people who have a cough, fever, sore throat, loss of taste and/or smell, breathlessness, and/or other respiratory symptoms.

People who have come into contact with lab-confirmed cases who are over 60 years of age or people with comorbidities who have other diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic lung or kidney disease, obesity.

People traveling abroad (according to the requirements of different countries).

International passengers arriving at Indian airports/ports/ports of entry will have to undergo tests as per the guidelines.

Instructions have also been issued to conduct tests in hospitals, according to which the test can be done at the discretion of the treating doctor, keeping in mind these things, testing can be done -

Any emergency procedure like surgery and delivery should not be delayed due to a lack of tests.

Patients should not be referred to other facilities in the absence of testing facilities. Arrangements should be made to collect and transfer samples to all testing facilities.

asymptomatic patients undergoing surgical/non-surgical invasive procedures, or

Pregnant women in/near to hospitalized for labor should not be tested unless necessary or asymptomatic.

Hospitalized patients should not be tested more than once a week.

Who does not need testing?

1. Asymptomatic person in a community setting

2. The person who came in contact with the case of COVID-19, if not comorbid or older.

3. Patients discharged as per home isolation guidelines.

4. Persons traveling domestically from one State to another

Some more important points of the advisory -

Testing can be done either through RT-PCR, TrueNat, CBNAAT, CRISPR, RT-LAMP, Rapid Molecular Testing System, or Rapid Antigen Test (RAT).

A positive point-of-care test i.e. home or self-test / rapid antigen test and molecular test will be considered as confirmed, no-repeat test will be required.

For asymptomatic persons, a home/self-test or RT-PCR test should be done in case of the negative test at RAT.

The vaccination status of all persons tested for COVID-19 should be recorded in the Sample Referral Form (SRF) in the RTPCR app. Because this information is very important.

Genome sequencing is done for surveillance purposes and does not need to be done for treatment purposes. Therefore, genome sequencing will be done only in a subset of positive samples as per the recommendations of INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance Consortium).

All RTPCR and RAT testing results should be uploaded on the ICMR portal.