Omicron may see less hospitalisations: Telangana DPH

Hyderabad: While it is too early to predict the behaviour of the Omicron variant, medical condition of a few early Omicron positive patients in Hyderabad has indicated that the new variant-driven Covid infections could be less severe and need not require hospitalisation and critical care. Senior health officials here on Friday said they have some […]

Hyderabad: While it is too early to predict the behaviour of the Omicron variant, medical condition of a few early Omicron positive patients in Hyderabad has indicated that the new variant-driven Covid infections could be less severe and need not require hospitalisation and critical care.

Senior health officials here on Friday said they have some clarity on the behaviour the Omicron variant. There is no denying the fact that it is highly transmissible. However, none of the Omicron positive patients in Telangana have any Covid symptoms. This is a clear indication that it is less severe than the earlier variants like Alpha, Beta and Delta and requires less hospitalisation, health officials said.

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“We urge general public not to panic from the new Omicron variant. In fact, Covid positive people should be least bothered about what kind of variant they have and should focus on getting treatment at the earliest. If they have symptoms, then they should head to the nearest primary health centre and get tested,” Director of Public Health (DPH), Dr G Srinivasa Rao said.

He acknowledged that transmissibility of Omicron could be 16 times of the Delta variant. As a result, there will be chances that immuno-compromised patients like individuals with chronic heart and kidney disease, transplant patients and even elderly will remain susceptible.

“People must realise that Omicron does not pose severe threat to lives. So far, only one patient in UK has died due to the new variant. However, because of its transmissibility, we can’t take risk or be careless. We need to think about vulnerable population in our society. It is not yet clear how Omicron will behave among elderly and individuals with compromised immunity. It would take at least 2 to 3 weeks to understand this,” Dr Rao said.

The DPH also pointed out that Omicron has the ability to reinfect individuals who had earlier recovered from Covid infections and had gained natural immunity. The new variant can also cause breakthrough infections, which means it could infect fully vaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals.

“I urge people not to stop or hesitate to conduct their daily activities just because of the new Omicron variant. There is also no need for people to panic, because we already have experienced and learned a lot from the first two Covid waves. The variant spreads very fast but at the same time it appears not to be severe,” he said.

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