If infected with Omicron, most patients recover within 5 days, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Thursday revealing data on the COVID variant. The Centre recently conducted a detailed study (in Delhi) on the most common symptoms of Covid in the 3rd wave.
This comes at a time when the country is witnessing a massive surge in COVID cases, led by the Omicron variant. On Thursday itself, over three lakh infections were recorded.
What are the common symptoms for Omicron?
Fever with or without rigors (shivering), cough, irritation in the throat, muscular weakness and tiredness are the five common symptoms the ministry listed. Around 99% of patients in Delhi complained of these symptoms, the health ministry data revealed. Fever, cough, throat irritation generally subside after day 5.
Sharing data during a routine press conference on the COVID situation in the country, Bhushan said, “In Delhi, from Jan 9 to Jan 19, there have been 75,000-78,000 active cases but number of those hospitalised is between 2,500 to 2,600.
Why infection severity is low even amid the massive surge?
Explaining the reason Dr Balram Bhargava, ICMR, DG, said in the same platform, “Vaccines have remained beneficial in India. Deaths have considerably reduced due to vaccinations. In this third surge of COVID19, we are currently not witnessing severe illness and deaths due to high vaccination uptake."
He also informed that 94% of India's adults have been administered the first anti-Covid dose. In the 15-18 years age group, around 52% have received their first dose of the vaccine.
Further, government officials said that vaccination coverage will be expanded for those under 15 years of age based on scientific evidence.
How fatal is the current wave?
As many as 11 states and union territories have more than 50,000 active Covid-19 cases and 515 districts are reporting a weekly case positivity of over five%, officials said.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Delhi and Rajasthan are among the top ten states in terms of active cases, the said adding that - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are among the "States of Concern".
India logged 3,17,532 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 249 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,82,18,773, which includes 9,287 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
(With inputs from agencies)
