For early detection of Coronavirus spread in Telangana, government and private hospitals were directed to report Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or pneumonia cases to the Telangana Health Department on a daily basis.
If there were to be a spike in number of SARI or pneumonia cases in a locality, officials will investigate if Coronavirus is spreading in there.
This clinical surveillance will serve as early indicator of the spread.
Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivas Rao, who issued the directions, stated in a memo that this will be used as surrogate marker for COVID-19.
“A rising trend of SARI/Pneumonia cases will trigger the need for further investigation for COVID-19,” he said.
The criteria for reporting the cases are: 1) age above 15 years 2) fever 3) any respiratory symptoms -- severe cough or shortness of breath 4) hospitalisaiton. If a patient meets the four criteria points, the case should be immediately reported to State Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) teams.
“The reporting shall start retrospectively from March 8 2020 to understand the baseline admissions of the facility,” Dr Rao stated.
The clinical surveillance will be taken up at hospitals where majority of patients get admitted for severe respiratory problems identical to COVID-19.
Teaching hospitals, district hospitals, area hospitals, corporate and other private hospitals are being identified as sentinel sites for the surveillance.
The communication was sent to Director of Medical Education, Commissioner of Telangana Vaidhya Vidhana Parishad, Telangana Nursing Homes Association, Telangana Network Hospitals Association, and Indian Medical Association.
