As daily cases jump 6 times in one week, Pune hospitals brace for surge in admissions

“On Tuesday, we had 21 admissions. We now have a total of 48 Covid patients admitted in our hospital. As the numbers go up, five or six per cent of the positive cases might require hospital care. So we have to be prepared for that,” said Dr Dhananjay Kelkar, medical director of Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital.

Infectious diseases specialist Dr Amit Dravid said the fact that mostly mild cases are being reported among people infected with the Omicron variant must not lead people to take this lightly.

“Some people have adequate immunity from prior infection or vaccination, and they are able to resist the infection. But there is a huge population that is immuno-compromised. We expect the hospitalisation rate to be very low compared to the second wave, may be less than half. But this can still be a significant number if the spread is very large,” said Dravid.

“Symptoms are mainly related to the upper respiratory tract. The Omicron variant does not proliferate well in the lungs and majority of the cases are mild or asymptomatic. Fever, cough, cold, severe weakness and fatigue are among the common symptoms but those like loss of taste and loss of smell seen in the last wave are not being seen this time. Breathlessness, which was very common during the second wave caused by Delta variant, is also not very frequently seen this time,” said Dravid.

He said many of the symptoms seen in infected people during the first and second waves are not being seen as commonly during the current wave.