With the new set of COVID testing guidelines, the Indian Council of Medical Research has tried to take some burden off of testing laboratories, which have been battling with the pressure of consistently conducting tests amid the deadly second wave of COVID-19 that has engulfed the country.

The new guidelines have recommended no RT-PCR tests to be conducted on those who have been tested before. Additionally, individuals who are getting discharged from hospitals will not need another round of COVID-testing.

Furthermore, healthy people travelling across states can do away with RT-PCR tests. All symptomatic individuals, however, must continue to adhere to testing requirements, the guidelines added.

The testing should be focused on individuals with symptoms who have tested negative in rapid testing, announced the guidelines. Even citizens who have completed 10 days home isolation period with no fever for the last three days, do not need to test again via RT-PCR or RAT.

Pushing for antigen tests and vaccination, the guidelines have made it mandatory to enter the information of vaccination status in the testing form for RAT or RT-PCR. This information is important given number of people testing positive after one or both doses of the vaccines.

To prevent testing in obvious cases, the ICMR has said that individuals with symptoms such as fever (with or without cough), headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, the recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue and diarrhea should be automatically considered as a suspect case of Covid-19 unless proven otherwise by confirmation of another etiology.