Uttar Pradesh to admit Covid-19 negative patients with symptoms at special wards

Amid reports that several patients showed severe damage to lungs despite testing negative for Covid-19, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday said that such patients would be given treatment at separate wards in already established Covid treatment centres in the state.

The step was taken as patients with presumptive Covid-19 diagnosis were neither getting treatment at Covid hospitals because of their negative test report nor at non-Covid centres for having Covid symptoms.

“In the last few weeks, we have come to know through different sources about people who were confirmed Covid negative, but based on their X-ray, CT scan or blood test reports, the doctors suspected them to be infected by coronavirus. At present, these patients were not getting treatment at Covid hospitals because of a negative test report, and were also facing problems in admission in non-Covid hospitals for having coronavirus symptoms… Several experts and officials of the health department agreed that such patients who are not confirmed positive in Covid test report but appear to be infected by the virus should be given treatment just like any other Covid positive patient… Therefore, patients with presumptive Covid-19 diagnosis should be provided treatment facilities at already established Covid treatment centres. These patients will be kept at separate wards at these centres,” Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad wrote in a letter to all the district magistrate and health officials.

The letter further said that a decision to treat these patients as Covid patients will be taken after a discussion with the medical education department.

Meanwhile, the state recorded the highest number of Covid-linked deaths in a single day since the pandemic broke out last year. As many as 120 people have died in the past 24 hours, taking the total death count in the state to 9,703 by Saturday.

Lucknow recorded most deaths (36), according to the health department’s bulletin. The number of active cases in the state has now crossed 1.70 lakh with 27,357 more people tested positive in the last 24 hours. They included 5,913 in Lucknow, followed by 1,977 in Prayagraj, 1,826 in Kanpur Nagar and 1,664 in Varanasi. At least 56 other districts reported more than 100 positive cases in one day.

In terms of active caseload, Lucknow has the most – 44,485 – followed by 15,229 in Prayagraj, 14,080 in Varanasi and 10,017 in Kanpur Nagar.

Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal, state Director General of Police (DGP) Hitesh Chandra Awasthy and Lucknow District Magistrate (DM) Abhishek Prakash have all tested positive.