Ranchi: The state government’s order on December 29 for giving preference to institutional quarantine of Covid patients is set to paralyse the available health infrastructure given the pace at which the infection is spreading.
Experts have sounded an alert on the matter and said the decision of quarantine — home or institution — should not be left with incident commanders or administrative officials but stressed that a protocol must be issued at the level of the health department.
As on Saturday, Covid wards at the state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (Rims) and the sadar hospital were almost full to the capacity with the majority of patients being asymptomatic.
“The virulence of the new Omicron strain is less though the transmissibility is high. Currently, our wards are filled up and most of the patients are asymptomatic,” said Dr Pradeep Bhattacharya, the head of the state Covid centre at Rims. He cautioned that if the medical experts and the staff are engaged with the asymptomatic patients, they would be exhausted and not be able to serve at a time when actual medical care is needed for serious patients. Out of the total patients admitted at Rims, only four are on oxygen support. “Even the four patients do not require high-flow oxygen and are expected to recover soon,” he said.
ENT expert and specialist in neck and skull surgery, Dr. Abhishek Kumar Ramadhin, said he had attended to several Covid patients in the last couple of days. “There is no doubt that the infection is spreading very fast but in the absence of genome sequencing, we cannot say with surety whether they are the Omicron variant,” he said, stressing that within a few days, institutional quarantine would prove burdensome because the number of patients is going to increase manifold.
“Most of the patients are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, which is often noticed during the end of any pandemic but we have to remember that even if 0.1% of the patients get serious and need ICU treatment, our health infrastructure is going to be inadequate in the wake of the quick spread of the infection,” he said, suggesting that the government should take a decision on home quarantine for asymptomatic patients as soon as possible.
Officials in the state health department said that they are closely monitoring the situation and the incident commanders have been directed to take a call about a home or institutional quarantine. The order for quarantine is based on a directive from the Centre, they said. However, the doctors claimed that the incident commanders are not ready to take the onus of allowing home quarantine, fearing the spread of the virus.
“Our hospitals — comprising both government and private — do not have an unlimited infrastructure to quarantine each and every patient and when we know that the new variant is highly infectious, we have to accept the fact that the majority of the population is going to be infected. Therefore, the health infrastructure should be kept ready for those who genuinely require treatment,” said Jogesh Gambhir, president of the Jharkhand chapter of Association of Healthcare Providers India.
He said apart from the compulsory institutional quarantine, patients out of panic are also coming to hospitals but they should understand that the present variant is causing mild symptoms which are getting over within 48 to 72 hours without much intervention.
Experts have sounded an alert on the matter and said the decision of quarantine — home or institution — should not be left with incident commanders or administrative officials but stressed that a protocol must be issued at the level of the health department.
As on Saturday, Covid wards at the state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (Rims) and the sadar hospital were almost full to the capacity with the majority of patients being asymptomatic.
“The virulence of the new Omicron strain is less though the transmissibility is high. Currently, our wards are filled up and most of the patients are asymptomatic,” said Dr Pradeep Bhattacharya, the head of the state Covid centre at Rims. He cautioned that if the medical experts and the staff are engaged with the asymptomatic patients, they would be exhausted and not be able to serve at a time when actual medical care is needed for serious patients. Out of the total patients admitted at Rims, only four are on oxygen support. “Even the four patients do not require high-flow oxygen and are expected to recover soon,” he said.
ENT expert and specialist in neck and skull surgery, Dr. Abhishek Kumar Ramadhin, said he had attended to several Covid patients in the last couple of days. “There is no doubt that the infection is spreading very fast but in the absence of genome sequencing, we cannot say with surety whether they are the Omicron variant,” he said, stressing that within a few days, institutional quarantine would prove burdensome because the number of patients is going to increase manifold.
“Most of the patients are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, which is often noticed during the end of any pandemic but we have to remember that even if 0.1% of the patients get serious and need ICU treatment, our health infrastructure is going to be inadequate in the wake of the quick spread of the infection,” he said, suggesting that the government should take a decision on home quarantine for asymptomatic patients as soon as possible.
Officials in the state health department said that they are closely monitoring the situation and the incident commanders have been directed to take a call about a home or institutional quarantine. The order for quarantine is based on a directive from the Centre, they said. However, the doctors claimed that the incident commanders are not ready to take the onus of allowing home quarantine, fearing the spread of the virus.
“Our hospitals — comprising both government and private — do not have an unlimited infrastructure to quarantine each and every patient and when we know that the new variant is highly infectious, we have to accept the fact that the majority of the population is going to be infected. Therefore, the health infrastructure should be kept ready for those who genuinely require treatment,” said Jogesh Gambhir, president of the Jharkhand chapter of Association of Healthcare Providers India.
He said apart from the compulsory institutional quarantine, patients out of panic are also coming to hospitals but they should understand that the present variant is causing mild symptoms which are getting over within 48 to 72 hours without much intervention.
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