Amid Omicron, Delta alarms hospitals in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Amid Omicron surge, it is the Delta variant that appears to be driving hospitalisation across the city.
Many private hospitals have reported a surge in the number of Covid-19 affected people getting admitted to the hospital due to aggravated symptoms such as fever, dry cough and falling oxygen saturation levels over the last 10 days.
The Delta variant was primarily responsible for the second wave between February and June 2021, resulting in large number of deaths.Doctors fear that even as the Omicron variant is resulting in the rise in number of cases, it is the Delta variant that is proving alarming for hospitals.

As of January 26, as many as 38,023 Covid-19 patients are under treatment and isolation across Telangana. This figure stood at 22,197 on January 17. The number of people admitted in the hospital also increased from 2,366 about 10 days back to 3,332 on January 26.
Dr K Prashant Kumar, consultant physician at Sunshine Hospitals, said, “The third wave started around January 1, but we have observed rise in hospitalisation over the last one week. People are landing up at the hospital with aggravated symptoms such as high-grade fever, breathlessness, saturation of 93-94%. In the RT-PCR test, if we find S gene then we clinically consider it as Delta variant.”
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Doctors said that the Delta variant is still prevalent, with many cases landing up in serious conditions at the hospitals.
“Those with Delta are landing up at hospitals with elevated C-reactive protein, which is a marker of inflammation in the blood. Difference between previous wave and this wave is that people requiring oxygen is lower this time. Most of Delta patients are getting admitted for three to five days and recovering thereafter,” said Dr Naveen Reddy, consultant physician, Yashoda Hospital, Somajiguda.