In 80% of Noida cases, mild or no symptoms

Greater Noida: When the health department carried out a review of Covid-19 cases in the district, it found that a high number of infected people have shown either mild or no symptoms.
Officials said that around 20% of active patients in the district have sought treatment at Level-2 or Level-3 facilities while nearly 80% of those who tested positive are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.
Meanwhile, a majority of Covid patients have been allowed to quarantine themselves at home while only the ones needing intensive care or oxygen treatment are being admitted to the government facilities.
Chief medical officer (CMO) Deepak Kumar Ohri said, “Home quarantine has helped us scale up testing. Earlier, a lot of people did not come forward to be tested. They were worried about spending 14 days away from family in the government facility. Now, a majority of the active patients quarantine themselves at home.”
Currently, the district administration is operating one L2 and two L3 facilities. Out of the 857 active patients in the district on Tuesday, 184 were housed in the three facilities (Child PGI hospital, GIMS and Sharda hospital). Only 35 individuals among 184 required intensive care or ventilator support.
The trend has been the same for the past one month, added officials and 80 to 85% of the active patients are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms.
As many as 370 patients who had separate washrooms and required resources were allowed to stay at home while the remaining 303 (the majority being single persons, students, bachelors or those from economically poor background) were either asked to spend 10 days in quarantine at a paid facility or the two government-run L1 facilities. Ohri said that people from an economically poor background, elders who have no caretakers, government employees who stay in hostels or quarters away from the family are kept at Greater Noida-based GIIMS or Tata hospital in Sector 125.
“We are not allowing single persons to quarantine at home. In case of complications, it becomes difficult for the person to call up the integrated control room to access emergency health services. Also, it is difficult to manage medicines, vegetables, groceries without stepping out. Neighbours also stay away from Covid patients and hence nobody is there to help in times of emergency,” said Ohri.