Covid-19: TN points pointers on Covid testing

Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Public Well being and Preventive Drugs has issued pointers on Covid-19 testing and revised pointers on discharge.

The guildline says that people who find themselves to be examined with RT-PCR for SARS COV2 are these with ILI signs like fever, chilly/cough, myalgia and breathlessness. Contacts of RT-PCR constructive Covid instances to be examined are: all these symptomatic contacts; all contacts above 60 years no matter signs or co-morbidity standing and particular teams like pregnant moms, immune compromised people; differently-abled individuals no matter signs or co-morbidity. All different asymptomatic contacts to not be examined, says the rules issued by TS Selvavinayagam Director of Public Well being and Preventive Drugs, final week and launched to the media on Monday.

Sufferers in Covid Care Centre (CCC) or house isolation will probably be discharged and finish isolation after no less than seven days have handed from onset of signs or from date of sampling. and no fever for consecutive three days. Re-testing is just not wanted for discharge from house isolation or CCC. Hospitalised extreme instances must be discharged after medical restoration.

In the meantime, Tamil Nadu’s Well being Secretary J Radhakrishnan on Monday mentioned that Omicron variant is the rationale behind the sudden rise of Covid-19 instances within the State. Just one per cent of Covid sufferers of ICU in hospitals are utilised so for. Moreover creating consciousness among the many public, the State authorities is proactively taking steps to regulate the unfold of the pandemic, he mentioned in a seminar.

Whereas talking at a particular media workshop titled ‘Interactive Session with Mediapersons on Omicron Surge, Vaccination of Goal Teams, Covid consciousness and preparedness,’ Radhakrishnan mentioned that journalists ought to perceive that data throughout disaster time shouldn’t be handled as a commodity. For a pandemic like Coronavirus, which challenges to create a change within the public behaviour with the out there info, it’s the duty of the media, which performs an vital function in sensitising the individuals, to take the info to them.

He requested media to do a fact-check earlier than presenting data to the general public.C Ravichandran, Professor of Pediatrics & HOD, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, ICH, Madras Medical School, mentioned that in each surge, scientists will do genomic sequencing to seek out the brand new variants and can perform additional analysis on that. Within the case of third wave attributable to Omicron, the surge may be very quick compared with the primary and second wave.

This exhibits Tamil Nadu would possibly see as much as 1.5 lakh instances per day quickly. The rise within the each day positivity exhibits that there’s a neighborhood unfold occurring. That is occurring all through the nation and never solely in Tamil Nadu, he acknowledged in a launch supplied by PIB.