All cases of fever, body ache to be tested for Covid: Centre writes to states, lists 8 symptoms

Any individual presenting with fever with/without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, bodyache, recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue and diarrhoea should be considered as suspect case of Covid-19 unless proven otherwise by confirmation or another etiology, the Centre said.

The Union health ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research on Friday wrote to all states and Union territories asking them to ramp up testing as RT-PCR results may take time due to huge pressure. In such cases, the governments should increase rapid antigen testing and encourage people to use self-testing kits that have been approved by the government. Any individual presenting with fever with/without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, bodyache, recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue and diarrhoea should be considered as suspect case of Covid-19 unless proven otherwise by confirmation or another etiology. All such individuals must be tested, the Centre said. 

A health worker collects swab samples of passengers to conduct a Covid-19 test at the Anand Vihar railway station near New Delhi.(PTI)

"A rise in Covid-19 cases accompanied by an increase in positivity rate is being documented in various parts of the country. Early testing of suspect patients and their contacts and isolating them expeditiously are one of the key measures to curb transmission of SARS-CoV-2," the letter said.

"Based on the previous experience, it has been observed that if the number of the cases rise above a certain threshold, RTPCR-based testing leads to delays in confirming diagnosis due to its turnaround time of about 5-8 hours," it said.

Listing out the symptoms which need to be tested, the Centre said while their results are awaited, they should be advised to isolate and follow the home isolation guideline of the health ministry.

Starting from December 26, India is witnessing a sudden surge in the daily Covid toll, which is believed to be driven by Omicron, the latest variant of SARs-CoV-2. Experts believe Omicron has replaced Delta to be the dominant strain in the country as maximum cases reported now are of the Omicron variant. 

As on Friday, India's Omicron tally stands at 1,270 while the country recorded 16,764 new infections and 220 daily fatalities. The sudden rise in the cases has triggered apprehension that the third wave of the pandemic has begun in the country. The Centre on Thursday said the surge in India could be linked to the global surge but there is no need to panic.