Coronavirus in Delhi: Patients ignoring mild symptoms initially are rushing to hospitals later, according to doctors

With an increasing number of Coronavirus cases in the national capital, doctors across the city have flagged the high number of patients who initially ignore the mild symptoms and later have to be rushed to hospitals as their condition worsens. Many hospitals in the national capital have reported receiving patients who neither paid attention to mild symptoms of infection nor got themselves tested and were later admitted to the hospitals as their condition deteriorated including high grade fever, severe body ache, muscle aches, lung fibrosis, and cardiac involvement among others, the Indian Express reported.

Dr Atul Kakar, vice chairman, Department of Internal Medicine at city’s Sir Ganga Ram hospital told the Indian Express that his hospital alone had received upto 30 patients who had not got tested and had developed severe Covid-19 complications. Dr Kakar also said that all these patients later turned out to be Covid-19 positive when his team tested the patients for Covid-19. Many of the patients who had reached the hospital were suffering from involvement of lungs, nervous system, heart and blood vessels, he added.

Similar were the findings of Dr Vikas Maurya, director, head of pulmonology at Fortis hospital, Shalimar Bagh who told the Indian Express that there are even patients who have already crossed the stage where the virus cannot be detected in the RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests. Dr Maurya further said that for such patients, antibody tests are conducted where they are found to have contracted the virus. Dr Maurya also said that several of such patients suffer from severe lung infection and the damage caused to the respiratory system and other organs might continue even after the patient has tested negative for Covid-19.

Dr Rajesh Chawla, senior consultant, Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Apollo hospitals also reported some cases where patients even after testing negative are showing severe symptoms of the infection. He further said that in such cases his hospital conducts the antibody test of the patients and they are found to have contracted the lethal virus previously.