Meghalaya issues new discharge policy for COVID-19 patients; find the details here

Shillong: The Government of Meghalaya on Wednesday issued a new set of rules for the discharge of COVID-19 patients after recovery from the respiratory disease.

As per the guidelines, the mild/very mild/pre-symptomatic cases admitted to a Corona Care Centre (CCC) will undergo regular temperature and pulse oximetry monitoring. The patient can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and no fever for 3 days. There will be no need for testing prior to discharge.

At the time of discharge, the patient will be advised to follow the home isolation for a further 7 days. Prior to discharge, if the oxygen saturation of the patient dips below 95%, he/she will be moved to a dedicated COVID-19 hospital or health center. The patient's health will again be followed up through teleconference on Day 14.

Cases clinically classified as "moderate cases" will undergo monitoring of body temperature and oxygen saturation. If the fever resolves within 3 days and the patient maintains saturation above 95% for the next 4 days (without oxygen support), he/she will be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset in case of: absence of fever without antipyretics, resolution of breathlessness, and no oxygen requirement. Moreover, there will be no need for testing prior to discharge. At the time of discharge, the patient will be advised to follow the home isolation for 7 days, as per the guidelines.

Patients on oxygen, whose fever does not resolve within 3 days and demand of oxygen therapy continues, will be discharged only after the resolution of clinical symptoms, and the ability to maintain oxygen saturation for 3 consecutive day.

In severe cases, including immune-compromised patients (such as ones suffering from HIV-AIDS, Cancer, etc), discharge criteria for severe cases will be based on clinical recovery, and the patient testing negative once by RT-PCR.

In order to be eligible for home isolation, a patient should be clinically assigned as a very mild case/pre-symptomatic case by the treating medical officer. Such cases should have the requisite facility at their residence for self-isolation and also for quarantining the family contacts. A caregiver should be available to provide care on a daily basis. He/she must mandatorily communicate with the hospital.

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