Doctors advise to take a 6 minute walk test before seeking hospital admission

Bengaluru: Doctors are urging people not to panic if the RT PCR test comes positive as there is an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients seeking admission in hospitals. The citizen engagement platform of the government of India posted a video saying that most of the Covid-19 positive patients get cured under home treatment.

Besides good nutrition, loads of fluid, yoga, pranayama, Covid positive patients must keep a check on their fever and oxygen level. To understand the oxygen level with much clarity, a patient is suggested to take a six-minute walk in the isolation room. The patient has to take the oxygen reading before and after six-minute of walking in their isolation rooms. The video message said that this test can be taken twice or thrice in a day. There is no need to go to a hospital if these readings are normal.

Hospital admission is only needed when the baseline saturation on the oximeter is less than 94 per cent and also when there is a 4 per cent or more fluctuation in oxygen level before and after 6 minutes of walking.

In cases where the oxygen level is below 94 per cent, the person should lie down on their stomach to improve the oxygen level in blood.

If a person does not have any other symptom than fever, then only paracetamol is needed.

“Oxygen is a treatment, it is like a drug. There is no data that shows that this will be of any help to the patients and is, therefore, ill-advised”, said Dr Ramdeep Guleria, AIIMS director. He added that healthy individuals with 93-94 per cent oxygen saturation are not required to take high-flow oxygen to maintain the optimum saturation level. He also said that 85 per cent of the Covid patients will recover without any specific treatment.