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General News of Friday, 5 June 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

NCDC to discharge COVID-19 patients before testing negative

Chikwe Ihekweazu Chikwe Ihekweazu

The Nigerian Center for Disease Control, NCDC, has revealed new guidelines for the discharging of COVID-19 patients.

The new guidelines were issued on Thursday by the Director-General of the NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu while speaking at the press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja.

The DG revealed that a second negative test is no longer required before COVID-19 patients are discharged.

He said, “The two critical groups of patients are symptomatic and asymptomatic. For symptomatic patients, they may now be discharged at least 10 days after symptom onset and at least three days without symptom.

“So, if you’re symptomatic, you can be discharged if you’ve had three days without symptoms in addition to at least 10 days of symptoms. If your symptoms stay longer, we will wait for longer while managing you supportively.

“If you’re asymptomatic, you can be discharged 14 days after your first positive test, with confidence that you can go home and you’re no longer infective and you’re not putting anyone else at risk. So, we no longer have to wait for a negative test to discharge.”

Iheakweazu stated that the reason why health workers are yet to start observing the new guidelines is because of attachment to the previous. He also revealed that science proves that ten days without a symptom is enough backing for discharge.

The DG stated that only asymptomatic patients will be discharged as part of its post-discharge management.

He said, “We are not suggesting that people are discharged while they are still symptomatic, so we are talking about discharging people that are asymptomatic and have recovered.”