Explained: The logic behind the 7 day home quarantine
New Delhi, Jan 13: The Centre on Wednesday said lateral flow tests, which includes rapid-antigen and home-antigen tests, can detect Covid from the third day after exposure to the virus to day eight while the RT-PCR test can diagnose the infection for up to 20 days, PTI reported.
At a press conference, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava said on the first day one will test negative whatever tests they undertake.
"It
takes
time
for
the
virus
to
grow
in
your
system
and
that
is
known
as
the
latent
period.
From
day
three
it
will
be
detectable
in
the
Lateral
Flow
Tests
and
up
to
day
eight
which
is
the
infectious
period.
"That
is
why,
the
discharge
policy
and
home
isolation
policy
are
focusing
on
the
seven-day
period,"
Bhargava
explained.
He said that RT-PCR test results will continue to be positive even after day eight because certain RNA particles which are non-infective will continue to be shed and will continue to cause test results to be positive." The ICMR director-general said that for Omicron, lateral flow tests have become the backbone.
Bhargava said that according to government advisory, high-risk contacts of confirmed Covid cases, identified based on age or comorbidities, those undertaking inter-state travel do not need to get tested.
Also, asymptomatic individuals in community settings, patients who stand discharged according to home-isolation guidelines and those being discharged from a COVID-19 facility under the revised discharge policy do not need to get tested, he said.
However,
Bhargava
stressed
on
seven-day
home
quarantine
for
all
contacts
of
any
positive
case
according
to
the
guidelines
and
added
that
they
should
continue
to
wear
a
mask.
Referring
to
the
Advisory
on
Purposive
Testing
Strategy
for
COVID-19
in
India
issued
by
ICMR
recently,
he
said
symptomatic
individuals,
even
if
they
test
negative
on
a
home
test
or
rapid-antigen
test
should
go
for
RT-PCR
test.
According
to
the
advisory,
testing
can
be
undertaken
either
through
RT-PCR,
TrueNat,
CBNAAT,
CRISPR,
RT-LAMP,
Rapid
Molecular
Testing
Systems
or
through
the
rapid-antigen
test.
A
positive
point-of-care
test
and
molecular
test
is
to
be
considered
confirmatory,
without
any
repeat
testing.
Symptomatic
individuals,
testing
negative
on
home/self-test
or
rapid-antigen
test
should
undertake
RT-PCR
test,
the
advisory
stated.
In community settings, symptomatic individuals, at-risk contacts (elderly and individuals with comorbidity) of laboratory-confirmed cases may be tested. Also, individuals undertaking international travel may be tested.
In hospital settings, testing may be undertaken as per the discretion of the doctor with considerations such as no emergency procedure should be delayed for lack of a test and patients should not be referred to other facilities for lack of a testing facility, the advisory stated.
All arrangements should be made to collect and transfer samples to testing facilities, mapped to the health facility. There are 3,128 testing laboratories and India's daily RT-PCR testing capacity is over 20 lakh, Bhargava said.
(PTI)