Asymptomatic coronavirus patients will be kept in COVID care centres: Delhi health minister

Asymptomatic patients who have tested positive for coronavirus in the national capital will be kept in COVID care centres, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Monday.

The number of coronavirus cases in the national capital till Sunday stood at 2,003, including 45 deaths.

Many cases in Delhi are coming up where people are not showing symptoms but have tested positive for infection.

"We have three levels of facilities -- COVID care centre, dedicated COVID health centre and dedicated COVID hospital. Accordingly, we will admit them in different facilities. If a patient is asymptomatic, then they will be admitted in a COVID care centre, Jain told reporters.

He also said that after the trail run, coronavirus tests using rapid antibody test kits have begun in some of the containment zones across the city as per the central government protocols.

Till Sunday, the number of containment zones in Delhi stood at 78.

Recently, 31 members of an extended family, including children, living in an area, marked as a containment zone in Jahangirpuri here, had tested positive for COVID-19.

However, all of them were found asymptomatic.

The Centre had recently classified COVID-related health facilities into three categories -- COVID care centre, dedicated COVID health centre and dedicated COVID hospital.

COVID care centres are only for cases that have been clinically assigned as mild or very mild or as suspect cases.

These centres can be makeshift facilities and can be set up in hostels, hotels, schools, stadiums, lodges, among other places, both public and private.

If the need be, existing quarantine facilities can also be converted into COVID care centres, according to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) outlined by the Union government recently.

Functional hospitals like community health centres (CHCs), which can handle regular non-COVID cases should be designated as COVID care centres as a last resort. This is important as essential non-COVID medical services for pregnant women and newborns are to be maintained, it said.

Every COVID care centre must also have a dedicated basic life support ambulance (BLSA) equipped with sufficient oxygen support round-the-clock for ensuring safe transport of a case to dedicated higher facilities if the symptoms progress from mild to moderate or severe, the SOPs said.