Nagpur: City hospitals authorized to treat
Covid patients are facing a new problem. They are receiving many patients who test negative in multiple RT-PCR tests despite showing all Covid-like symptoms.
Fearing spread of infection among other patients and staff, the private hospitals have reserved separate wards for such suspected Covid patients, but are treating them as per Covid protocol.
As the gold standard RT-PCR is negative — ruling out admission in a DCH — some hospitals are undertaking high-resolution computed tomography (
HRCT) scans to confirm them as Covid patients. This also has a direct impact on the daily reporting of cases, as Nagpur district’s Covid-19 tally drastically came down on Thursday and Friday.
On December 2, the state government had issued a resolution asking hospitals and diagnostic centres to report all such cases where the HRCT scan is positive to civic bodies.
Government medical college and hospital (GMCH) medical superintendent Dr Avinash Gawande said patients testing negative for Covid-19 are kept in the SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) ward and treated as suspected Covid patients. “This is a transition ward. If repeat testing confirms Covid, they move to DCH or stay back,” he said.
However, private hospitals don’t have SARI wards and the trend has forced them to start new ones.
Orange City Hospital & Research Institute (OCHRI) director Dr Anup Marar said some patients were consistently getting negative reports in more than two RT-PCR tests. “We have set up a separate ward as they can’t be kept with non-Covid patients due to risk of infection; nor can they be shifted to DCHs without a positive report,” he said.
Kingsway Hospital’s head of critical care department Dr Ranjan Barokar said they too have an isolated area to treat and monitor such patients for 5-6 days. “We seek consent from the family. If it agrees, we treat them as Covid patients in isolation. Those with negative RT-PCR later develop antibodies. This retrospectively confirms that they were Covid-infected,” he said.
Seven Star Hospital’s Covid team in-charge Dr Mohan Nerker said around 30% patients were RT-PCR negative with shadows (patches on the lung that show up on the HR-CT scan). He warned that HR-CT changes can’t be taken as confirmed Covid infection. “It can mimic other virus like H1N1 or any other influenza,” Nerker explained.
Dr Hema Dhoble, head of Covid Unit at Suretech Hospital, Jamtha, said the Nagpur Municipal Corporation had asked all private hospitals to keep such patients in separate wards. “We are also reporting how many such patients are there at a given time. Private hospitals admitting Covid patients have separate wards which are not for Covid or non-Covid,” she said.
Dr Dhoble said patients having all the symptoms like cold, cough, fever and breathlessness were seen before too. “Now this is happening frequently, where you have CT scan changes but RT-PCR negative. But some are also deliberately not getting RT-PCR test done and staying back at home. People know that loss of taste and smell are indications of Covid, but sometimes it becomes difficult for them to get a confirmed negative report, necessary to resume duties,” she said.
FLUCTUATING CASE COUNT
Date -------- Cases
Jan 17 -------- 329
Jan 18 -------- 150
Jan 19 -------- 278
Jan 20 -------- 353
Jan 21 -------- 290
Jan 22 -------- 250
Jan 23 -------- 354