The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has advised that COVID-19 patients wait for a few weeks after recovery for non-urgent or elective surgeries.
Experts from the ICMR and the national task force have made the recommendation in order to ensure faster convalescence and healing after the surgery, The Times of India reported.
According to the report, these are the waiting times for elective surgeries that have been suggested:
Four weeks for an asymptomatic patient or someone who has recovered from only mild, non-respiratory symptoms
Six weeks for a symptomatic patient (including cough, shortness of breath) who did not require hospitalisation
Eight to 10 weeks for an asymptomatic patient who is diabetic, immunocompromised, or was hospitalized with COVID-19
Twelve weeks for a patient who was admitted to ICU with COVID-19
"Also, a minimum period of six weeks prior to non-urgent surgery is recommended for COVID-recovered patients who were symptomatic. As for emergency surgeries in recovering or recovered patients, these must be done immediately with due precautions," infectious diseases expert Sanjay Pujari, a member of the task force, told the publication.
The experts also advised against COVID-19 retesting within 102 days after recovery, due to the presence of "non-viable dead-virus particles" that remain in the body for some time, which could lead to a false positive.
"At present, Covid reinfection is confirmed only after 102 days of diagnosis. So, retesting within this time frame is not advisable," Pujari said.
Currently, surgeons are asking recovered COVID-19 patients to take RT-PCR/RAT tests as a part of the pre-operating procedure.
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