MOST OMICRON CASES SHOW NO SYMPTOMS All Had Contact With Someone From African Nations, The UK

MOST OMICRON CASES SHOW NO SYMPTOMS

All Had Contact With Someone From African Nations, The UK

Team TOI

Ahmedabad/Rajkot/Surat:  19.12.2021

The patients of Omicron variant of Covid-19 are not drastically different from the Alpha and Delta variants the experts have seen in the first and second waves — for the start, majority of the patients that got detected with the variant are asymptomatic, and don’t need oxygen support.

The first three patients of Gujarat — all from Jamnagar — were discharged from the government-run GG Hospital recently. The experts said that except the first case where a septuagenarian had developed fever and dry cough, the other two were asymptomatic.

“Their temperatures were checked regularly, and they were given paracetamol and multivitamin tablets as part of Covid protocol. Apart from that, they did not need any medical intervention,” said a treating doctor. “According to the protocol, they are supposed to remain quarantined for the next seven days and report to us if any problem arises. They were discharged after they tested negative twice after 14 days.” Dr Rakesh Joshi, medical superintendent of Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, said that the sole patient the hospital has — a native of Kheda with travel history to the UK — is stable. “In Delta variant, we had seen high involvement of lungs. Here, it’s not the case. The caution, however, is still required as Omicron is considered to be highly contagious and the patients are kept in a separate ward,” he said.

The only Omicron patient in Surat did not complain of any health issues since he tested positive. No symptoms were found during examination by doctors. “He was as normal as a healthy person,” said a health official. A 42-year-old businessman who had returned from Africa had tested positive after eight days of return and later the variant was confirmed in genome testing.

City-based experts said that sore throat, body ache, and mild fever are among the symptoms recorded in India and elsewhere. They, however, added that more details are required to ascertain the progression of the variant.

(With inputs from Nimesh Khakharia in Rajkot and Yagnesh Mehta in Surat)