300 beds arranged at Vijayawada Government General Hospital

With the alert sounded by the Central government and the State government new Coronavirus variant Omricon, theGovernment General Hospital in the city now getting battle-ready to combat possible surge of coronavirus cases in Krishna district.

The Government General Hospital had successfully treated several hundreds of Covid patients in the first and second waves in the district. According to experts, the new variant may spread six times faster than the Delta variant, which shook the world in the second wave.

The GGH arranged 300 beds with ventilators and liquid oxygen supply facilities during the second wave. The GGH authorities are ready to set up another 300 beds very quickly in case of emergency and the total bed capacity will be increased to 600 to treat the patients. The Vijayawada General Hospital had treated the Covid patients from Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and West Godavari districts and saved several hundred lives in the first and the second waves.

GGH superintendent Dr Y Kiran Kumar told The Hans India that 300 beds are ready in the super specialty block and another 300 beds will be arranged quickly in case of emergency. He said the hospital has three oxygen supply plants to provide oxygen. Over 90 ventilators are available at the GGH and 200 beds oxygen supply facility from the plant.

The superintendent said that during the second wave of Covid, most patients opted for home isolation. The hospital has qualified doctors and paramedical staff to treat the Covid patients. The health workers and doctors are on high alert and underlined the need to create awareness among people to follow Covid guidelines very strictly.

The struggle seems to be unending and the mirth and joy of life seems to have evaporated. Although previous VoCs emerged in a world in which natural immunity from Covid-19 infections was common, this fifth VoC has emerged at a time when vaccine immunity is increasing in the world.

The emergence of the alpha, beta, and delta SARS-CoV-2 VoCs were associated with new waves of infections, sometimes across the entire world. Why is the latest of more concern to us?” It is leading to increased transmission with a high viral load as acknowledged by experts in the field. The infection has gotten longer and is also known to be of a higher rate of reinfection.

If people are questioning the claims and the efficacy of vaccines, there is nothing wrong in it. After all, the pharma companies assured that their vaccines are the most effective. Some countries even refused to recognise Indian vaccines. Now they are talking about some more vaccines too. No one comes out clean on these matters. Maybe vaccination alone is not the solution. Prevention of the infection too is. But, the freedoms that we give to ourselves in our lives will not allow us the benefits of it because we detest foregoing our reckless lifestyles.

Let us look at the journey of Omicron first. The first sequenced omicron case was reported from Botswana on November 11, 2021, and a few days later another sequenced case was reported from Hong Kong in a traveller from South Africa.

Several sequences from South Africa followed, after initial identification that the new variant was associated with an S-gene target failure on a specific PCR assay. The earliest known case of omicron in South Africa was a patient diagnosed with COVID-19 on November 9, 2021. There could have been some more cases either around this time or prior to this one. What is of interest is the infection rate. In South Africa, the mean number of 280 Covid-19 cases per day in the week before the detection of omicron increased to 800 cases per day in the following week, partly attributed to increased surveillance.

What are the main concerns now? Whether this would be outside the purview of the vaccine protection. Some experts say no. Is it going to be more fatal? Again the answer seems to be – as of now – no. But, this will certainly have the potential to hit our economies again because of the high infection rate. Omicron is supposed to have more than 30 mutations, some of which just overlap with the other variants like alpha, beta, gamma or delta VoCs. It is the uncertainty that is more worrisome to us.

Available data suggests that (from South Africa) Omicron is affecting the younger people. As for clinical concerns or implications, nothing alarming has been reported so far. But, Covid-19 took several weeks to pose a challenge to us after infecting people.

Available data suggests that (from South Africa) Omicron is affecting the younger people. As for clinical concerns or implications, nothing alarming has been reported so far. But, Covid-19 took several weeks to pose a challenge to us after infecting people.

Again, when people got vaccinated for Covid-19, the efficacy of the same got lowered with the onset of variants. In some cases, as The Lancet reports, the vaccine was only 70 per cent effective in preventing clinical infections for some variants, it decreased to 10 per cent for the beta variant in South Africa. However, Omicron’s higher mutations make it uncertain for us to judge the vaccine efficacy in this case.

Humans have been battling viruses since before our species had even evolved into its modern form, science establishes. But we’re a long way from winning the fight against viruses. In recent decades, several viruses have jumped from animals to humans and triggered sizable outbreaks, claiming thousands of lives. Covid-19 killed a few millions. Of course, man has killed many more in the wars. However, it is not death that is the constant all through. Man’s struggle is. He evolves himself somehow to live on. Hope this time around too, he finds a way to live healthy. The Hans India