HCMC – The HCMC Department of Health has allowed the use of quick Covid-19 test results on the 10th day of treatment to decide if asymptomatic Covid-19 patients should be discharged from hospital.
The department today, July 19, sent an urgent dispatch to the relevant agencies on the testing of asymptomatic patients. Accordingly, asymptomatic patients who are being treated at Covid-19 treatment hospitals will undergo RT-PCR tests on the eighth day of treatment, the local media reported.
If the test result is negative or positive but with a low viral load, the patients will undergo quick tests on the 10th treatment day. If the result comes back negative, they will be discharged from hospital and allowed to stay at home if their homes meet the necessary requirements.
According to the HCMC Department of Health, the change is appropriate to the current situation. Patients who test negative for Covid-19 or positive but with a low viral load on the eighth treatment day are considered to have a low virus transmission risk.
Quick tests on the 10th day will help assess the transmission risk of the patients and shorten the time spent waiting for the test results.
HCMC is currently treating nearly 33,500 Covid-19 patients, including 362 using ventilators and 10 others put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machines. As many as 227 Covid-19 patients in the city have been confirmed dead.
Earlier, the municipal Department of Health regulated that asymptomatic Covid-19 patients receiving medical treatment at hospitals can be discharged from the hospital on the 10th day of treatment if they test negative for Covid-19 two consecutive times, which must be at least 24 hours apart.
