Karnataka may test asymptomatic persons for COVID-19 with Maharashtra travel history

Just when the labs in the state heaved a sigh of relief as there was no backlog of samples of Maharashtra returnees, who account for majority of the cases, the state is set to change its testing policy. Now, the government is planning to test even the asymptomatic persons from Maharashtra.

Confirming this to DH, Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey, said, “A new testing policy will be put in place on Saturday under Unlock 1.0. We were not drawing samples from asymptomatic from June 1 following the recommendations of the expert committee. But now we have put the issue of asymptomatic persons again in front of the committee, seeking its approval to test those who’d returned from Maharashtra.”

In Udupi, out of 784 total Covid-19 patients, only 31 are symptomatic, according to the state Covid-19 war room data. “The expert committee, citing the research from Singapore, reiterated that asymptomatic need not be tested as the transmissibility is low. But we have shown them the data about how many of those who have tested positive are asymptomatic and that we can’t neglect them anymore,” Pandey said.

According to the White Paper by the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and the Chapter of Infectious Disease Physicians, Academy of Medicine, Singapore, the infectious period of Sars-CoV-2 virus in symptomatic individuals may begin two days before the onset of symptoms, and persists for about 7 to 10 days after the onset of symptoms.

However, the paper also cautions that “robust data is lacking regarding infectiousness of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic individuals and how much asymptomatic infection drives transmission.”