Covid patients with ‘underlying disease’ needing hospital care

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, January 11

New admissions have started to swell in city hospitals, but patients requiring oxygen supplementation or ventilator support as observed in the second wave of Covid-19 has been bare minimum. A majority of the Covid patients admitted to the hospitals are those with underlying medical conditions and required oxygen supplementation or ventilator support due to their pre-existing illness.

Dr Sanjeev Palta from Internal Medicine, GMCH-32, said, “Ever since the start of the third wave, we have not experienced a single patient who was admitted to the ICU with Covid being the primarily illness. These patients were already comorbid and because of diseases, they were suffering beforehand.”

However, hospitals are also exercising caution with comorbid patients who have mild Covid symptoms. They are being monitored closely for any deterioration.

Dr Ashutosh N Aggarwal from Pulmonary Medicine, PGI, said, “Some patients, who otherwise have mild Covid symptoms, are also hospitalised in non-ICU areas because their underlying disease requires evaluation or treatment that cannot be offered at home. We are continuously advising all other patients to isolate themselves at home.”

Dr Suman Singh, Director, Health Services, UT, and GMSH in-charge, said, “A majority of patients have mild symptoms like fever, body ache and sore throat. We have admitted patients because of their underlying medical condition to monitor them for further evaluation. These are patients with renal failure, heart failure, diabetes, etc.”

Less incidence of oxygen desaturation

The last Covid wave saw patients reporting to hospitals with rapid fall in oxygen levels and succumbing to the disease in a brief spell. However, such trend has not been observed now.

Dr Palta said, “We are not experiencing patients desaturating or deteriorating rapidly as compared to the second wave. Out of 10 patients, only 3-4 patients are required 4-6 litres of oxygen per day. The reason maybe that Omicron mutation affects upper respiratory tract, throat, and the pathogen does not affect lungs. However, it is advised not to consider each case to be of Omicron variant, as we are not seeing genetic sequencing of every patient.”

“A small number of patients in the PGI is also requiring oxygen support after developing Covid symptoms, which is being provided on oxygen beds located outside the ICUs. The number of patients needing ICU admission or oxygen supplementation is likely to further rise as the number of active cases increases. When required, we will operationalise additional ICU beds to handle the increasing numbers,” said Dr Aggarwal.

ICU load not high

Of the 144 Covid patients currently admitted in the PGI, 10 are being ventilated and another 10 are on oxygen supplementation. Dr Aggarwal PGI said, “We have admitted patients to the ICU either because of severe Covid pneumonia, or because their underlying medical condition itself merits the ICU care.”

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