As false-negative cases increase, Karnataka govt directs officials to follow ‘syndromic approach’

Bengaluru: With increasing false negative reports during the COVID testing methods, the Karnataka government on Thursday ordered health officials to follow ‘syndromic approach’ and issue a patient number to those who have symptoms but test negative.

‘During the recent surge, an increasing number of false negative reports have been witnessed under both the methods of COVID testing viz.RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Test, enhancing the necessity of admitting and treating a large number of patients under the syndromic approach,’ the Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar said in his circular to the special commissioner of Bengaluru civic agency, district health officers and chief executive officers of panchayats.

Under this method, authorities concerned are authorised to issue patient number for such patients without a positive test report and treat them as COVID patients under the existing arrangements.

A few cases recently came to light where the hospitals refused to admit patients and treat them as COVID infected despite displaying all the virus symptoms.

It was because such patients’ COVID reports had come out negative,the government did not give them patient number. Without a patient number, such patients do not avail any benefits and required treatment.