The sharp spike in COVID-19 cases in Telangana over the past two days has got people rethinking about the safety precautions that they must take. Doctors at government and corporate hospitals are keeping track of COVID admissions in all wards as well as out-patient consultations.
Currently, the number of COVID admissions at most corporate hospitals in Hyderabad is low, the highest being around 20. However, all of them are cautious.
The number of ICU, oxygen, and general beds occupied by COVID patients is an indicator to measure severity of the virus spread. Oxygen consumption is also tracked.
The occupancy of ICU beds and oxygen beds across all government and private hospitals in the State has been in the same range since the past one and half months — 400 and 500, respectively. On Wednesday too, 425 ICU beds and 509 oxygen beds were filled, which indicates the occupancy rate is unchanged.
Before the surge, people were worried about how Omicron would impact them. Doctors at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) had said that though the current set of people with Omicron are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, the variant’s behaviour in people with severe conditions such as chronic kidney disease, cancer, etc. is yet to be observed.
Explaining that infection with Omicron causes relatively milder symptoms and very often people brush it off as common cold, President of Apollo Group of Hospitals K. Hari Prasad stressed on the importance of getting tested. “If one is actually infected and does not know it is COVID infection due to Omicron, they tend to move around as normal people and infect scores of people in the community,” said Dr Hari Prasad.
Healthcare professionals have emphasised the need to wear masks, avoid unnecessary gatherings, maintain physical distancing, and get vaccinated against COVID as the cases are expected to rise further.
