‘Covid patients in Telangana recovering in 3-4 days’

Hyderabad: Despite the rise in active Covid-19 infections in Telangana, there are clear indications that the new Omicron variants are not causing a surge in hospitalisations and there are no fatalities among individuals who have tested positive, preliminary clinical observations and trends by senior government doctors in Hyderabad have indicated. Between June 1 and July […]

Hyderabad: Despite the rise in active Covid-19 infections in Telangana, there are clear indications that the new Omicron variants are not causing a surge in hospitalisations and there are no fatalities among individuals who have tested positive, preliminary clinical observations and trends by senior government doctors in Hyderabad have indicated.

Between June 1 and July 9, the active Covid infections in Telangana increased from 481 to 5,189, but not a single fatality was reported. In fact, unlike the previous three waves, this time even hospitalisations in government and private hospitals have been very low and patients are recovering quickly.

Between the same timeframe, Gandhi Hospital, which treated over 80,000 Covid patients in Telangana during the earlier waves, has not received a single critical positive patient during the recent surge.

“There are no hospitalisations and nobody needs oxygen support despite the rise in Covid infections in Telangana. In fact, people who are testing positive are recovering in three-four days, which was not the case earlier. During the Delta and the last Omicron wave, patients used to recover in a week to 15 days. This is a very encouraging sign,” Gandhi Hospital Superintendent Dr M Raja Rao said.

A recent similar preliminary clinical study of 75 patients in Pune with BA.2.74, BA.2.75 and BA.2.76 variants, conducted by health specialists from BJ Government Medical College (BJGMC), has also indicated that most of them had mild symptoms and none required oxygen. There were no fatalities either.

While the severity of Covid infections is low, the Omicron variants, however, have continued to spread at a quick pace. “The reinfections could be due to new variants and waning immunity among individuals who were infected earlier,” Dr Raja Rao pointed out.

The developers of the SUTRA mathematical model of forecasting pandemics from IIT-Kanpur and Hyderabad also pointed out that the infections could be due to waning immunity. “As per our model, the current rise is primarily caused by a slight increase in susceptible population due to waning of natural immunity. In future, one should expect more such ripples as more people lose natural immunity,” mathematics professor and developer of SUTRA model from IIT-Kanpur, Dr Manindra Agrawal, said.