NEW DELHI: The Union Health Ministry has said that Covid-19 testing will no longer be mandatory for asymptomatic donors and recipients in organ transplants, except for lung transplants. The move is aimed at improving India’s organ donation rate, which remains low. Officials said organs of donors without symptoms were being discarded earlier because of positive Covid-19 reports, leading to the loss of organs that could have saved many lives.

The revised national transplant guidelines for Covid-19 testing were issued on Tuesday by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) under the Union Health Ministry.

In a circular sent to all States, NOTTO Director Dr. Anil Kumar said that “uniform testing for Covid-19 would not be required for asymptomatic donors or recipients in both living and deceased donor transplants, except for lung, where it would be mandatory to do a Covid RT PCR test for both donor and recipient”.

“For symptomatic cases of donor or recipient or both, the call for Covid-19 testing may be taken by the treating doctor/clinician based on their assessment of such cases,” the circular said.

“The guidelines being revised are only for the requirement of Covid-19 testing in case of living and deceased donors and recipients of organ transplantation,” it added. The decision follows recommendations from the Apex Technical Committee of NOTTO for Organ Transplantation. Experts said the move was taken in view of the sharp decline in Covid-19 cases and the significant drop in transmission levels across the country.