Hyderabad: Amid the COVID-19 surge, the Telangana government on Wednesday has issued an order to conduct mandatory RT-PCR test in hospitals setting on five categories of patients.
Patients from these categories, who are in hospital for either out-patient or in-patient care, are to be subjected to RT-PCR testing, according to the orders issued by Telangana Director of Public Health and Family Welfare G Srinivasa Rao on Wednesday.
The five categories of patients to be tested for COVID-19 include those coming to hospital with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), Influenza-like Illness (ILI) symptoms, asymptomatic high-risk patients who are hospitalized or seeking immediate hospitalization, asymptomatic patients undergoing surgical/non-surgical invasive procedures and all pregnant women in/near labour who are hospitalized for delivery.
For patients undergoing invasive procedures, a weekly check-up is mandatory during hospital stays. The orders were issued in consultation with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) from September 2020 on the COVID-19 testing strategy.
All registered health facilities in the state are required to conduct RTPCR tests on these categories of patients and submit daily reports to the health department officials. The vaccination for t above 45 years age group begins on April 1 at more than 600 vaccination centres. Telangana have nearly 90 lakh to 1 crore individuals eligible for vaccinations, informed officials.
“The response to the vaccination rollout has been slow. However, with the newer priority group opening up now, we are hoping to have a target of 50k individuals every day from here onwards. We intend to cover the complete target population between June and July,” said Dr GS Rao, Director of Public Health.
According to the state’s government COVID-19 bulletin, Telangana reported 887 fresh COVID-19 infections and four deaths on Wednesday, with as many as 5,511 active cases.
As of March 31, a total of 10,24,990 people in the state had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 2,39,036 had received both doses of the vaccine. From April 1, people aged 45-59 will be eligible for vaccination regardless of the cause.
March saw 9,900 cases of COVID and 67 deaths in Telangana state.