AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria on Monday advised avoiding unnecessary computerised tomography scan (CT scan) in cases of mild symptoms of Covid-19 and warned against use of steroids in the early infections of the deadly disease. Addressing a press conference, Guleria said one CT scan is equivalent to 300-400 chest X-rays and this increases the risk of having cancer in later life, especially in youth, as one is exposed to harmful radiation. The CT scan will show few patches which will end without any treatment, he noted.

The CT scan machine takes cross-sectional images of the body using computers and rotating X-ray machines. They are being used to detect Covid infections by detecting signs of pneumonia or white patches in lungs. More people are relying on the expensive scan than last year as reports suggest the mutant variants of the virus can go undetected in the gold standard RT-PCR test.