10% SARI patients test positive for COVID-19; 3 have no history of contact

About ten per cent patients suffering from severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) who were tested for coronavirus have been found to be positive for the disease and three of these patients do not have any exposure history, officials said.

The three persons from as many states -- Chennai, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra -- have neither revealed any recent travel history nor did they come in contact with an infected patient, the officials said.

According to Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Raman R Gangakhedkar, around 11 out of the total 110 patients with SARI who were hospitalised have tested positive for COVID-19. Refuting the possibility of community transmission, Gangakhedkar said they have just started testing SARI cases.

"There are some sporadic cases where people are not revealing their exposure history but their numbers are not significant enough to assume that the virus is spreading rapidly," Gangakhedkar said.

Follow live updates of coronavirus cases in India here

"Till the time we see a significant number of cases to indicate community transmission, let us not over interpret things," he said.

The ICMR recently revised the testing strategy for COVID-19 stating that all hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory illness having symptoms of fever and cough and/or shortness of breath will henceforth be also tested for coronavirus infection.

Besides, according to the revised guidelines, asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case should be tested once between day 5 and day 14 of coming in his/her contact.

All asymptomatic individuals who have undertaken international travel in the last 14 days and develop symptoms, all symptomatic contacts of laboratory confirmed cases and all symptomatic health care workers are also being tested as per the guidelines.

The strategy of coronavirus testing was revised in view of the rising cases of the pandemic in the country to contain the spread of the infection and to provide reliable diagnosis to all individuals meeting the inclusion criteria of COVID-19 testing.