Covid isolation cut to 7 days, no need for re-test — Govt’s new guidelines for home quarantine

According to the health ministry, asymptomatic cases are laboratory-confirmed cases with no symptoms and have oxygen saturation at room air of more than 93%.

An ASHA worker pastes a Covid-19 isolation poster outside a patient's house | Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday issued revised guidelines for home isolation of mild, asymptomatic COVID patients.

As per the Ministry, the patients under home isolation will stand discharged and can end isolation after at least seven days of testing positive for the virus and when they experience no fever for three successive days. “There is no need for re-testing after the home isolation period is over,” the Ministry added.

As per the Ministry, asymptomatic cases are laboratory-confirmed cases that are not experiencing any symptoms and have oxygen saturation at room air of more than 93 per cent.

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

Meanwhile, India logged 58,097 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours, and the daily positivity rate is at 4.18 per cent the Union Health Ministry informed on Wednesday. The active caseload of COVID cases in the country now stands at 2,14,004.

As per the Ministry, 2,135 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in India, of which 828 have recovered. Maharashtra and Delhi are among the worst-hit states with the highest number of recorded Omicron cases at 653 and 464 respectively.