Multi-vitamins and paracetamol tablets were the only treatment provided to Omicron patients at Delhi’s Lok Nayak hospital so far, doctors said on Friday. The LNJP Hospital, which is the Delhi government’s largest healthcare facility, has reported 40 cases of the latest coronavirus variant of concern till now. Nineteen of these patients have already been discharged.
A senior doctor at the hospital said around 90 per cent of the patients are “asymptotic” and the rest showed mild symptoms like “sore throat, low-grade fever and body ache”. “The treatment included only multi-vitamins and paracetamol tablets. We didn’t feel the need to give them any other medicine,” he said.
The doctor said most of the patients are those who tested COVID-19 positive at the airport upon arrival from foreign countries. Barring one, all are fully vaccinated and around two-thirds of them have taken the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Three have even taken booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine, he added.
The patients included an MP of an African country, a member of a royal family from a north Indian state, and family members of bureaucrats, a source said. According to data from the Union Health Ministry, Delhi has logged 67 Omicron cases so far, of which 23 have been discharged.
Besides the LNJP Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram City Hospital, Max Hospital Saket, Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj and Batra Hospital in Tughlakabad have also set up facilities for isolating and treating suspected cases of Omicron following orders from the Delhi government. Genome sequencing of samples of all COVID-19-infected people in Delhi is being conducted since December 22 to ascertain if the new Omicron variant has spread in the community.
The Delhi government-run labs at the Lok Nayak Hospital and the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences can sequence 100 samples each day. Two Centre-run labs in Delhi can sequence 200-300 samples a day, according to city Health Minister Satyendar Jain. Anticipating a surge in Covid cases due to the fast-spreading Omicron variant, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his government has made preparations to handle one lakh patients and conduct three lakh tests daily, and to ensure availability of enough manpower, medicines and oxygen.
He stressed that the latest variant of the coronavirus spreads rapidly and claimed that it causes “very mild” infection, fewer hospitalisations and deaths. Therefore, the government has been focusing on strengthening its home-isolation module, and directions have been issued to hire agencies for treating patients at their homes, he said.
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