Govt releases revised guidelines for home isolation of mild/asymptomatic COVID cases

New Delhi: The centre has released revised guidelines for home isolation of mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.

Patients under home isolation can end isolation after at least seven days have passed from testing positive and if there is no fever for three days in a row. They will continue to wear masks. There is no need for re-testing after the home isolation ends.

Earlier, home isolation ended after 10 days from onset of symptoms.

Till date every Omicron patient had to be hospitalised, sources have told NDTV. Since this is a new variant of the coronavirus, the National Centre for Disease Control is documenting every patient to understand the symptoms and severity.

Asymptomatic patients are laboratory confirmed cases who are not experiencing any symptoms and have oxygen saturation of more than 93 per cent.

Clinically assigned mild cases are patients with upper respiratory tract symptoms with or without fever, without shortness of breath and having oxygen saturation of more than 93 per cent.

Over the last two years, it has been seen globally as well as in India that a majority of cases of COVID-19 are either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. Such cases usually recover with minimal interventions and accordingly may be managed at home under proper medical guidance and monitoring, the Health Ministry said today.

According to the revised guidelines, elderly patients who are over 60 years and those with co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and chronic lung disease, among other, should only be allowed home isolation after proper evaluation by a doctor.

Patients suffering from immune compromised status such as HIV, transplant recipients and cancer therapy are not recommended for home isolation, unless cleared by a doctor, the Health Ministry said.