New Delhi: Amid global panic over the highly transmissible Omicron Covid-19 variant, doctors at a Delhi hospital said multi-vitamins and paracetamol tablets were the only treatment given to patients, PTI reported.
The Lok Nayak hospital, which is the Delhi government's largest healthcare facility, has so far admitted 40 Omicron cases. Nineteen of these patients have already been discharged.
Most of the patients tested positive for Covid-19 at the airport upon arrival from foreign countries.
A senior doctor at the hospital said around 90 per cent of the patients were "asymptomatic" and the rest showed mild symptoms like "sore throat, low-grade fever and body ache".
"The treatment included only multi-vitamins and paracetamol tablets. We didn't feel the need to give them any other medicine," PTI quoted the doctor as saying.
READ | Omicron 50-70% Less Likely To Cause Hospitalisation Than Other Covid Variants: UK Study
The doctor also said that apart from one patient, all were fully vaccinated and around two-thirds of them were admisnistered the Pfizer vaccine. Three patients were found to have taken booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine, PTI reported.
The patients included an MP of an African country, a member of a royal family from a north Indian state, and family members of bureaucrats, PTI reported.
Data from South Africa, Denmark, England and Scotland have shown that Omicron infections result in mild illness than earlier variants.
An analysis by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has found that people infected with Omicron were 50-70 per cent less likely to need hospitalisation compared with other Covid-19 variants like Delta, BBC reported.
Delhi has reported 67 Omicron cases so far, of which 23 have been discharged.
The Delhi government is also conducting genome sequencing of all Covid samples to ascertain if the new Omicron variant has spread in the community.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government had made preparations to handle one lakh patients and conduct three lakh tests daily.
He said the Omicro variant spreads rapidly and causes "very mild" infection, fewer hospitalisations and deaths.
"The government has been focusing on strengthening its home-isolation module, and directions have been issued to hire agencies for treating patients at their homes," Arvind Kejriwal said.