The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Thursday announced that one can rejoin their work after 14 days of recovery from Covid-19 without further testing.
Additional director general for health Prof Nasima Sultana made the comment at the daily briefing following reports that people have been harassed in some places for not having a coronavirus free certificate.
Bangladesh Post earlier on June 2 ran a report that Covid-19 patients can join work after 10 days of becoming symptoms free – no matter whether coronavirus negative or not as the person is no longer infectious.
“Our clinical guidelines, WHO and US CDC recommended to stay 10-day in quarantine after recovery, but we here are advising you to stay four more days as precaution,” Prof Nasima said.
“So the employers and organisations can consider allowing the recovered patients to return to work,” she said, adding that many people are facing trouble in returning to their workplaces.
In this regard, she said, a Covid-19 patient must stay in 14-day isolation initially and s/he can return to work after spending 14 more days in quarantine from the day of symptoms free.
And then there would be no need for further tests, he said.
Patients are being released from hospitals after three days of not having any symptoms such as fever, cough or breathing problems.
“And then we ask them to stay at home the next seven days. After that they can join work if they are physically well. If possible, they will test. Otherwise, it’s not needed,” Prof Khan Abul Kalam Azad, a member of the national editorial board of the clinical management guideline committee, earlier told Bangladesh Post.
“The person remains no longer infectious after seven to 10 days (of self-isolation),” Dr Azad, Professor of medicine and also the principal of Dhaka Medical College, had explained.
Covid-19 patients in hospitals with severe illness were used to test twice before releasing. If the swabs are both negative in 24 hours apart, they can be discharged and don’t require further self-isolation.
Since hospitals are overloaded across the world and new scientific evidence emerges, the guideline has been changed.
The clinical guideline was updated on May 28 in Bangladesh, though hospitals were following the discharge criteria from the first week of May.
The WHO also said that the RT-PCR test can be positive even after weeks, but the patient remains non-infectious.
