BENGALURU: The number of Covid-19 cases is increasing by the day, but according to city doctors, none of the patients is displaying any alarming new symptoms or needs hospitalisation.
Stressing that this does not mean lowering one’s guard and not following Covid protocols, doctors from various hospitals say the usual symptoms of fever, cold, chills and headache accompanied by diarrhoea are common among the new patients.
Dr Sachin Kumar, senior consultant, pulmonology & critical care medicine, Sakra World Hospital, told STOI there has been a slight increase in number of patients with acute respiratory symptoms coming to their emergency wing as well as OPD. “Typically, they have upper respiratory tract symptoms similar to any viral illness consisting of cough, sore throat and high fever for initial two to three days. Diarrhoea also is common in these patients,” said Dr Kumar, adding that so far, the numbers and symptoms are not severe.
Currently, there are over 3,000 active Covid cases and 12 active clusters across the city. The positivity rate for the past week is 2.31 per cent. Dr Haleema Yezdani, consultant at Connect and Heal, a telemedicine company that has been volunteering and offering treatment to Covid patients for free, said: “The most common symptoms remain severe headache, fever, cold, cough and sore throat. People are also showing gastrointestinal symptoms like abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhoea, which explain the reason for body ache and weakness,” she said.
Dr Satyanarayana Mysore, HOD & consultant-pulmonology, lung transplant, Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road, said while the number of new Covid patients is increasing across the country, they have not seen a spike at the hospital. “The set of symptoms that we are witnessing has not changed and they are very mild. However, this should not be a reason to lower one’s guard,” he said.
Doctors said most patients are showing flu-like symptoms — fever, cough, runny nose, body pain and fatigue. “Most patients are recovering well with symptomatic management. Only those with pre-existing lung issues like asthma need closer monitoring as the risk of clinical worsening will be high in them,” said Dr Pavan Yadav, lead consultant, interventional pulmonology & lung transplantation, Aster RV Hospital.
Dr Srivatsa Lokeshwaran, consultant, interventional pulmonology & transplant physician, Aster CMI Hospital, believes BA.4 and BA.5 are currently the dominant Covid variants affecting many people. “These sub-variants of Omicron are nothing new, they also seem to cause no more or less severe disease than earlier variants of Omicron. Chills, cough, difficulty breathing, fatigue, body ache, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, runny nose, nausea/vomiting and diarrhoea are some of the commonly observed symptoms. Among these, cough, fatigue and runny nose were also seen in those with Omicron,” he said.
Stressing that this does not mean lowering one’s guard and not following Covid protocols, doctors from various hospitals say the usual symptoms of fever, cold, chills and headache accompanied by diarrhoea are common among the new patients.
Dr Sachin Kumar, senior consultant, pulmonology & critical care medicine, Sakra World Hospital, told STOI there has been a slight increase in number of patients with acute respiratory symptoms coming to their emergency wing as well as OPD. “Typically, they have upper respiratory tract symptoms similar to any viral illness consisting of cough, sore throat and high fever for initial two to three days. Diarrhoea also is common in these patients,” said Dr Kumar, adding that so far, the numbers and symptoms are not severe.
Currently, there are over 3,000 active Covid cases and 12 active clusters across the city. The positivity rate for the past week is 2.31 per cent. Dr Haleema Yezdani, consultant at Connect and Heal, a telemedicine company that has been volunteering and offering treatment to Covid patients for free, said: “The most common symptoms remain severe headache, fever, cold, cough and sore throat. People are also showing gastrointestinal symptoms like abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhoea, which explain the reason for body ache and weakness,” she said.
Dr Satyanarayana Mysore, HOD & consultant-pulmonology, lung transplant, Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road, said while the number of new Covid patients is increasing across the country, they have not seen a spike at the hospital. “The set of symptoms that we are witnessing has not changed and they are very mild. However, this should not be a reason to lower one’s guard,” he said.
Doctors said most patients are showing flu-like symptoms — fever, cough, runny nose, body pain and fatigue. “Most patients are recovering well with symptomatic management. Only those with pre-existing lung issues like asthma need closer monitoring as the risk of clinical worsening will be high in them,” said Dr Pavan Yadav, lead consultant, interventional pulmonology & lung transplantation, Aster RV Hospital.
Dr Srivatsa Lokeshwaran, consultant, interventional pulmonology & transplant physician, Aster CMI Hospital, believes BA.4 and BA.5 are currently the dominant Covid variants affecting many people. “These sub-variants of Omicron are nothing new, they also seem to cause no more or less severe disease than earlier variants of Omicron. Chills, cough, difficulty breathing, fatigue, body ache, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, runny nose, nausea/vomiting and diarrhoea are some of the commonly observed symptoms. Among these, cough, fatigue and runny nose were also seen in those with Omicron,” he said.
