Covid-19 testing necessary to break chain of transmission, says health expert
Amid the continuous rise in Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant, a health expert said that it was important that people get tested to break the chain of transmission as avoiding the test and just assuming the presence or absence of Covid-19 infection will lead to carelessness.
"If you just presume that you are Covid-19 positive without any test, you would not take isolation measures as strictly as you would have taken, if you had the confirmed report. Therefore, it is important that you get yourself tested and then go through strict isolation measures so that we can break the transmission chain," said Dr Arvind Kumar, senior surgeon, Medanta hospital.
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Raising concerns around the common misconception among the public regarding the virus, Dr Kumar said, "Don't consider this virus as common cold because hospitalization has risen."
"Three things have come to light after analyzing data gathered in last three weeks. First, active Covid-19 cases have seen a steep rise by many folds. Second, the rate of hospitalizations has increased but not at the same rate as witnessed in the rise of cases and last one being, the death toll has also gone up several folds," said Dr Kumar.
"In the midst of an increase in Omicron cases, people are getting a serious disease. Patients are getting admitted in ICU, they are requiring oxygen support and there have been some cases of death also," he added.
However, he also said that this wave is not as dangerous as the Delta wave.
The number of ICU admissions, oxygen requirement, and death is not as frantic and as psychologically daunting as it was in the second wave last year. However, as more Omicron variant cases are being reported from every country, we can say that Omicron has replaced delta," he said.
Stressing on the need to follow precautions in the fight against coronavirus and especially the new Omicron variant of the virus, he said, "Vaccines are less effective against Omicron. It is important to take precautions because if the number of cases increases then the situation will become worst for hospitals."
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-PTC News
