COVID-19: More people being discharged now after revised policy, says NITI Aayog member

The speed at which people are being discharged following treatment for COVID-19 has accelerated after the revised discharge policy came into force which could be reflecting in the recovery rate but many patients who had recovered earlier were not even counted, NITI Aayog member Dr V K Paul said on Thursday.

Chairperson of one of the 11 empowered groups formed to suggest measures to ramp up healthcare, put the economy back on track and reduce misery of people once the lockdown is lifted, Paul said even when the previous discharge policy was in place COVID-19 infected patients were recovering and were discharged but were not counted.

A total of 67,691 people have recovered from coronavirus in the country so far and in the last 24 hours 3,266 patients were found to have been cured.

This takes the country's total recovery rate to 42.75 per cent, the Union health ministry said.

"Before the new guidelines came into force, we were discharging patients after some time based on certain conditions. But then the patients had already recovered," Paul said at a press conference.

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"But when it came to notice, through data, that the patients were recovering timely. Also data emerged about virus turning negative fast which gave the clinicians and the scientific community confidence that the patients can be discharged after a certain period based on mild, moderate and severe cases," he said.

Paul said this was good and positive as the patients could be sent home early and safely and as a result beds would be vacated timely.

Earlier this month, the Union Health Ministry issued a revised discharge policy according to which moderate cases of COVID-19 and pre-symptomatic, mild and very mild cases need not undergo tests before being discharged after the resolution of symptoms.

Coronavirus-infected patients developing severe illness or with compromised immunity will have to test negative through RT-PCR test after resolution of symptoms before they are discharged by a hospital.

Moderate cases of COVID-19 and pre-symptomatic, mild and very mild cases need not undergo tests before being discharged after the resolution of symptoms.

According to the previous guidelines, a patient was considered fit to be discharged if he or she tested negative on day-14 and then again in a span of 24 hours.