The fleeting Covid third wave

The much-liked Bengaluru weather can play havoc with those it chooses to get under the skin. Not only are doctors foxed while telling a regular influenza from the recent variants of Covid-19, even tests have proved to be unreliable, reports Kumaran P.

With one or the other member of almost every family in Bengaluru falling sick, citizens are in a fix whether it is Covid-19 or the common flu due to changing weather conditions. City doctors dissect the symptoms and advise what and when one needs to test for Covid-19 and how to take care. However, they say that it is difficult to differentiate between the delta and omicron variants of Covid-19.

Dr Pradeep Rangappa, Consultant, Intensive and Critical Care at Manipal Hospitals, Yeswanthpur, said, “It’s hard to delineate the symptoms between delta and omicron variants. Wave 2 that was predominantly caused by delta had distinctive symptoms of loss of taste and smell, which appear to be absent in the 3rd wave. Wave 2 was dreadful in affecting lungs with the need for oxygen even in younger age groups, which isn’t the case in wave 3. Omicron variant as evidenced seems to cause much milder disease with predominantly upper respiratory symptoms, fever, sore throat, headache, and body ache lasting for two-three days after which the patient starts to feel better. This is unlike what happened during the 2nd wave where patients used to be troubled by much longer-lasting fever and its deleterious sequel.”

“The 2nd wave Covid manifested into post-Covid symptoms that caused severe fatigue, reduced tolerance to doing simple daily activities, cognitive issues affecting memory, sleep etc, which does not appear to be the problem with the 3rd wave. Having said all this, as per data from Karnataka, gene sequencing done in 5,584 samples as of Jan 23 shows delta strain to be prevalent at 52.93 per cent and omicron at 16.67 per cent. The dampening of symptom severity possibly is largely due to the vaccine effect in ameliorating the severity and the progressive weakening of the virus virulence,” he added.

Dr Brunda M S, Consultant, Internal Medicine, Aster CMI Hospital, said, “Comparatively, omicron tends to cause less severity than the delta variant. A majority of the patients are experiencing milder Covid symptoms and the death rate is low. Fewer patients need hospitalisation and have shown less severity. Overall omicron is causing fewer problems than the previous variants, but that doesn’t mean we should see it as less threatening. We may still end up with a number of people getting severely ill. Some of the commonly seen symptoms in omicron infections are headache, scratchy throat and mild body temperature. The omicron variant causes mild symptoms, which was not the case with delta. In delta, we have witnessed patients complaining of loss of sense and taste, which is not there in the case of omicron.”

“Compared to normal cold, Covid-19 has a longer potential incubation period and is accompanied by more varied additional symptoms like fever, chills, fatigue, headache, muscle and body aches, loss of smell or taste, nausea, diarrhoea and has a higher risk of complications and fatality. One needs to undergo testing to confirm the illness,” she added.

Dr Srivatsa Lokeshwaran:

We are presently at the peak of the third wave and cities like Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai are already showing signs of the curve bending with a profound drop in cases. Most major cities in southern India, though, are reaching their peak. But there is a lot that is different in the third wave compared to the second one. At about the same time during the peak of the second wave when our hospitals were full, the delta variant was on a rampage leading to an alarming escalation in hospital admissions with a loss of lives and significant morbidity.

It’s about the same time we as a unit also witnessed the first ever double lung transplant done in the state on a doctor because of extensive scarring of his lungs. In quite a contrast, this wave seems to be thankfully picking on only a small margin of the population, that too those with significant co-morbidities and ones who haven’t taken their vaccinations.

As compared to the delta variant, the omicron is causing 54 per cent less hospital admissions, 76 per cent less ICU admissions and 91 per cent reduced mortality. Also, since worldwide the omicron variant is rapidly replacing other strains as the dominant strain, it is becoming a blessing in disguise due to its comparatively benign nature.

The symptoms of presentation with this wave remain the same with predominantly cough, fever, sore throat and stuffy nose. Also, the number of patients landing with high levels of oxygen requirement as well as severe pneumonia has far reduced.

The boon of self