Hospitals not required to retest COVID-19 patients before discharge

[Jonathan Fairfield]

 

BANGKOK (NNT) - The Thai government has decided that a further test for COVID-19 prior to a patient’s discharge is no longer required for patients in much improved condition, however such patients should continue to self-isolate at home until the 14th day.

 

Deputy Government Spokesperson Traisuree Taisaranakul, has responded to questions from COVID-19 patients and their relatives about the lack of a COVID-19 test prior to discharge from hospital, saying the practice is no longer mandatory according to the latest treatment protocol.

 

In the current circumstances, hospitalized COVID-19 patients whose condition has improved may be discharged from the hospital in less than 14 days, the typical quarantine period for COVID-19. A COVID-19 test to see whether they are still infected prior to discharge is not a requirement, according the the latest version of the official COVID-19 treatment protocol dated 4th August.

 

The updated protocol advises that the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 may still remain in the mucus or saliva of a recovered person for quite some time, depending of the strain of the virus, which means they will continue to test positive for COVID-19 despite having recovered.

 

The protocol, issued by the Department of Health together with medical experts and medical schools, suggests a test prior to discharge is not necessary, while the course of treatment should be determined based on the patient’s symptoms.

 

Patients who have been discharged early from hospital must continue to self-isolated at home until day 14. They must immediately contact a hospital should they develop a high-grade fever, a cough, tiredness, or a chest pain, have difficulty breathing, or develop a lack of appetite. Patients who complete the 14 days without new symptoms can resume their daily activities as usual, while maintaining social measures including masking, hand hygiene, and physical distancing.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-08-15

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow ASEAN NOW on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[Scrotobike]

Quick empty the beds

Quack - off you go

Patient - but I cannot breath

Quack - byebye

[tomazbodner]

Well, that's one way to free up beds quicker and have more tests available for others...

[Anythingleft?]

Little wonder the recovery rate figures are sky rocketing, anything to make things look better than they actually are......

[RotBenz8888]

3 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

self-isolate at home until the 14th day.

Are they added to the "recovered" in the statistics after 14d, because they are assumed to test negative after that period? 

[internationalism]

similarly to what was happening in some other countries earlier on, during the 1st and consecutive waves.

The health systems were overstretched and after the first positive test they were told self-isolate or be hospitalised and without the final test. After recovery viral shedding is minimal.

I would hate to be in situation some people were for many weeks and many months, when without any symptoms they were tested every few days until 2 negatives.

This directive is also a sign of times to come in thailand.

I don't think it's about keeping statistics down. Just a practical approach to managing now limited resources. 

 

[daveAustin]

Keeps infection figures artificially low and ‘recovered’ figures high. 

[LiamB80]

They give a chest X-ray on the 12th day. If it is normal they are released on the 14th day as long as they are not reporting any other symptoms. The early chest X-rays I took did show the covid was in my lungs, my later X-rays showed it was gone. They also take tubes of blood throughout the time you’re there to check the levels of antibodies in your blood.  I was fully recovered on the 7th day at a covid hospitel and had to wait another week before being released. The doctor told me I should still rest and recover further at home for two more weeks.

[ronster]

I spoke to someone who tested positive after meeting with a person who had been at a club in samui. They got stuck in quarantine in a hotel for 14 days , weren’t allowed to smoke incase it gave anyone covid from their balcony , got released on day 14 not having been tested the whole time there and then told to self isolate at home for a further 14 days and someone would come test them at the end of that !! ????????

They had zero symptoms at all and were only told to get tested initially as immigration called them knowing they had been in contact with an infected person. 
Cost of this seemingly amazing ???? 14 days runs at around 87000bht !

16 days ASQ in Bkk with three tests can be bought for around 27000bht ! 
Go figure ????????

[Cake Monster]

7 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Well, that's one way to free up beds quicker and have more tests available for others...

Hey ! Stop !

You forgot to take the ventilator with you

Edited August 15, 2021 by Cake Monster

[tomazbodner]

15 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

Hey ! Stop !

You forgot to take the ventilator with you

I don't need to. Have one at home.

[salsajapan]

test for what ? people can be positive 90 days after having covid. So it's useless.

[tingtong]

In reflection that fully vaccinated sandbox tourists required 3 negative tests before " let loose", 

This move make little sense beyond a fake cosmetics touchup to official numbers.

[riclag]

Not required ! If you go in for a procedure or tests (blood work ,xrays) as a outpatient your at risk of being infected. The percentages of catching covid are even stronger if your admitted to the hospital and have to stay for days imop !

Hospital are for sick people and its not always a safe haven  from the outside world

Edited August 15, 2021 by riclag

[Sheryl]

This raises the question of what happens to an asymptomatic foreigner who tests positive in quarantine. AFAIK they are still being hospitalized and negative test used to be the criteria for discharge. So now what?

 

(I am returning to Thailand in a few weeks so have a personal vested interest!)

[Albert Zweistein]

6 hours ago, tingtong said:

In reflection that fully vaccinated sandbox tourists required 3 negative tests before " let loose", 

This move make little sense beyond a fake cosmetics touchup to official numbers.

3 Tests means money.

[Cake Monster]

10 hours ago, Sheryl said:

This raises the question of what happens to an asymptomatic foreigner who tests positive in quarantine. AFAIK they are still being hospitalized and negative test used to be the criteria for discharge. So now what?

 

(I am returning to Thailand in a few weeks so have a personal vested interest!)

Good question Sheryl

My guess is that Foreigners will still have to be tested prior to release.

And the reason I say this is twofold

Firstly its about the Money for the testing ( I know its a fairly small amount, but the rag has to be wrung completely dry ), and possible extra Money for Hotel / Extra Quarantine. 

Secondly. Pure and simple Racism and Xenophobia. Two diseases that have become ingrained in Thai Society now.

I hope your return goes well, and you have zero issues. Good Luck

 

 

[internationalism]

this directive is about thai hospitals, hospitels. 

The ASQ and ALQ rules remain. They would argue they don't want a new strain.

I am not sure that much racism and xenophobia in that case. 

If they can fleece anybody (including their own returning citizens) for those 3 tests for 9k, lung x-rays, moving from ALQ and ASQ to hospitel, they will gladly do. They have captured affluent group, who agreed beforehand to all necessary procedures and their credit cards are already swapped and signed for any forthcoming bill.

I think from 1st July returning Thais have to pay for ASQ (they have different hotels from foreigners, at half price, from some 1k/day), but they still have free tests.

[rabas]

I think they've done this because hospitalized patients are consuming more and more of Thailand's small 70K (80K theory) daily PCR tests.  As positive test rates go up, each positive test creates a new patient that needs at least 2 more PCR tests before release. Thus, fewer PCR tests for testing for new cases. This can be seen in the following graphs. This is not good news, it is another sign of a failing medical system.

 

 

Source: https://github.com/djay/covidthailand

[drenddy]

This was, and still is, the practice in the West?

 

People don't need to have a negative PCR before returning to work.

[bbko]

Why test someone that's already shown to be infected with Covid several days prior? 

 

Here's some covid testing "advice" from a former high ranking US government official:

 “When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases."