Covid infections will rise in the coming days but no need to panic: Telangana DPH

Hyderabad: The BA.4 and BA.5 variants of the Omicron are expected to drive up the daily Covid infections in Telangana and other Indian states for the next four to six weeks. In the past one week, there has been nearly 60 per cent rise of Covid infections in Telangana.

Despite the surge, people need not panic, as hospitalisations and disease severity is negligible, Director of Public Health (DPH), Dr G Srinivasa Rao said here on Friday.

The daily surge in Covid cases here is in line with the ongoing trend of rise in Covid infections across several other States including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi.

Last week the total number of Covid infections in Telangana was 355 while this week, the number of total daily Covid infections surged to 550. The percentage positivity rate in Telangana (percentage of positive cases) was 0.4 but has now has reached 1.

“We are anticipating this surge to remain active for six weeks. But it won’t be like a fourth wave because of no hospitalisations and severity. Since the daily infections are rising, people at an individual level must ensure they wear masks at public spaces and get vaccinated just to avoid spreading or getting infected,” he said.

As on Friday, there were 811 active Covid infections of which 560 were from areas under GHMC, 236 from Rangareddy while 52 were from Medchal-Malkajgiri district.

Despite the surge, only two Covid positive cases have been admitted in a private hospital and there been no indication of disease severity.

As part of measures to counter the surge, the health wing is preparing ground to increase the number of daily Covid tests at all state-run healthcare facilities, in addition to strengthening surveillance activities to quickly identify Influenza like Illness (ILI) cases.

Since the rise of Covid infections due to Omicron variants is coinciding with seasonal flu season, people must be alert and capable of differentiating the symptoms, which is important for isolation.

“The symptoms of Omicron are different when compared to common cold or influenza. The common cold symptoms will be visible in a day or two but symptoms for Covid will take at least three to five days to occur. Unlike cold, in Omicron, symptoms like headache, body pains, dry cough, fever, loss of taste and smell will be intense but they will subside quickly in 3 to 5 days,” DPH said.