‘Discharge of patients under ICMR’S policy can increase spread’

The relaxation in the discharge policy directed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) may not be suitable for the country’s most populated city, where 42% of its population dwells in slums, experts claimed. They fear that at a time when the state health department has confirmed signs of community spread, the release of these patients can further increase the number of Covid-19 cases.

Recently, ICMR released a new discharge policy for Covid-19 patients, which stated that mild and pre-symptomatic patients will be discharged from Covid-19 centres if they do not develop fever in three days. With the new policy coming into effect, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would have to release around 2,500 asymptomatic patients from the Covid Care Centres-2 (CCC-2) where low-risk patients are quarantined.

“Despite so many hassles, we conducted contract-tracing and isolated the asymptomatic patients from the slums so that they don’t spread the infection. But with the release of these patients, we will be back to square one,” said a civic official from G North ward which comprises of Dharavi and has a population of 8.5 lakh.

An analysis of BMC data revealed that G North ward (Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim) has the highest number of asymptomatic patients at 529, followed by the G South ward (272), which are among the worst-affected wards with multiple containment zones. The 121 asymptomatic patients at CCC-2 facilities in M East wards (Govandi, Deonar and Chembur) will also be discharged.

Doctors also claimed that ICMR needs to be more rigid in Mumbai due to its demographic differences. “In several cases, we have seen that patients remain positive even on the 25th day. Premature discharge will further spread the infection among people living in small-sized households,” said Dr Vijay Natarajan, chief executive officer, Symbiosis University Hospital and Research Centre.

However, Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, urged people to believe in experts from ICMR who have years of experience and run several research before making policy changes. “When we say that a person is positive, it doesn’t mean he is still a spreader. He is just a carrier. Studies have shown that after 10 days of the disease onset, the virus may not be infectious. Also, asymptomatic patients are not active carriers,” he said.