New Delhi: Even as the Covid19 pandemic has been witnessing a continuous surge due to the Omicron variant, revised clinical guidelines for managing Covid19 patients has suggested the use of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab on an emergency basis and after all the "criteria" are met.
The revised clinical guidelines for the management of adult Covid19 patients issued by the Union Health Ministry have suggested that Remdesivir can be considered in patients with 10 days of onset of symptoms, in those having moderate to severe disease (requiring supplemental oxygen).
"Consider Ramdesivir for five days to treat hospitalized patients with Covid19. This should not be used in patients who are not on oxygen support or in-home setting," the guidelines suggested.
Referring to Tocilizumab, the guidelines suggested that the medicine can be considered against rapidly increasing Covid19 needing oxygen supplementation or IVM and not responding adequately to steroids (preferably within 24-48 hours of the onset of severe disease and ICU admission).
The guidelines suggested that Tocilizumab may be used among patients with no active TB, fungal, systemic bacterial infection.
The guidelines further said that people above 60 years with co-morbidities including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, chronic lung, kidney, and liver disease, cerebrovascular disease, and obesity fall in the high-risk category of severe disease and mortality.
When contacted over the revised guidelines by ETV Bharat, Dr Tamorish Kole, president of the Asian Society of Emergency medicine pointed out that low molecular weight heparin is missing from the treatment chart.
Low molecular weight heparin is a class of anticoagulant medications. "The low molecular weight heparin should be included in the treatment chart of severe diseases," said Dr Kole.
He further said that Remdesivir and Tocilizumab should be used only when all the required criteria are met.
Meanwhile, Union Health Ministry on Monday said that 2,58,089 new Covid19 cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours. Omicron cases have also witnessed an increase of 6.02 percent since yesterday as 8,209 total Omicron cases have been detected across India to date.
India's active Covid19 caseload currently stands at 16,56,341.
