Described is a method and device for detecting a discontinuous transmission (DTX) state or a partial DTX state at an uplink control information (UCI) receiver in a wireless communication system. The method comprises receiving a linear block encoded signal on an uplink (UL) at said UCI receiver and processing said signal after resource element (RE) demapping to obtain a soft bit sequence. The soft bit sequence is then transformed into multiple sub-sequences. Correlation metrics are determined for two or more of the multiple sub-sequences or two or more sub-sequence groups derived from the multiple sub-sequences or sequence segments derived from the sub-sequence groups. Then, a determination is made if a DTX state has occurred by evaluating the determined correlation metrics.