Coronavirus: ICMR revises testing guidelines, assures no community transmission yet

Indian Council of Medical Research on Tuesday revised the testing criteria for coronavirus patients while assuring that there is no community transmission yet.

Based on the recommendation of an expert committee, all asymptomatic persons who had a travel history in the last 14 days had to undergo mandatory home quarantine. If the person develops symptoms in that period, he or she may be taken to the designated isolation wards.

Follow live updates of coronavirus cases here

Similarly, all contacts of a laboratory positive case had to stay at home quarantine for 14 days, ICMR director general Balram Bhargava said here. “We are still in Stage-2 (cluster) and not in Stage-3 (community).” From an ongoing sentinel survey, medical scientists ruled out any community transmission of the virus. But the scope of the survey is being expanded.

Currently from a network of 51 laboratories, ICMR scientists pick up 20 samples of severe acute respiratory illness every week and test them for Covid-19. Samples are taken from serious patients who are at the ICU.

“The results from February show no community transmission. The results so far we have in March also reveal no community transmission. However, we would be having the complete results of March in a day or two. Also, we plan to expand the number of sites,” said Manoj V Murhekar, director of the National Institute for Epidemiology, Chennai - one of the ICMR institutes.

Asked whether the sample size of adequate, ICMR scientist Nivedita Gupta said getting 80 patients suffering from serious respiratory troubles for each of these sites – mostly government medical colleges – was not an easy task. “Based on patient samples, there is no evidence of community transmission,” she said.

The ICMR scientists' assurance comes in the backdrop of widespread fear among the general public on impending community transmission of the virus that wreaked havoc globally. “There is no need for panic. All the positive cases so far are linked to international travel,” added Lav Aggarwal, a joint secretary in the Union Health Ministry.