New Delhi: At meetings with the central government, many states and Union territories (UTs) have reported an average hospitalisation rate of 1-2 per cent through the third Covid wave — fuelled largely by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. While Delhi and Kerala reported around a 3-4 per cent hospitalisation rate, the outliers, according to top central government sources, are Tamil Nadu with 6 per cent and Maharashtra with around 10-15 per cent.
Initial assessments by the Centre seem to suggest that residual circulating Delta variant — which had wreaked havoc during the second wave — may be the reason for higher hospitalisations in Tamil Nadu.
However, Mumbai specifically, with a hospitalisation rate of 10-11 per cent, may be dealing with “(medical) practice issues”, say senior central government officials, with doctors often admitting patients for high-priced therapies such as monoclonal antibodies regardless of whether they work.
“Over the last 10 days or so, states have been reporting a hospitalisation percentage of about 1-2 per cent. In Delhi it is about 3.3 per cent. But in Tamil Nadu it is 6 per cent and in Mumbai it is 10-11 per cent. We are looking into Tamil Nadu and our initial assessment is that the hospitalisation rates there are higher because of some Delta still in circulation, but Mumbai is a more complex issue,” a senior official closely associated with pandemic management told ThePrint.
“Our treatment guidelines are clear, but doctors there are still taking decisions such as using monoclonal antibodies even though they are not proven to work on Omicron. These are professional medical decisions, it is very difficult for us to question them.”
At a review meeting with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya Tuesday, states and UTs reported sufficiently low levels of hospitalisation compared to the last wave.
“At the meeting, Jammu & Kashmir said they have about 1 per cent hospitalisation, Haryana about 2 per cent. This is a good place for us because in the Delta wave, the percentages were in the 22-23 range,” said a source who was present at the meeting.
ThePrint sought a comment from Maharashtra Principal Secretary (Health) Dr Pradeep Vyas on the high hospitalisations in the state, specifically Mumbai, via phone calls and messages. The report will be updated when a response is received.
Also Read: Maharashtra’s contrasting Covid trends: Cases rise across the state, but decline in Mumbai
Availability of medical infrastructure a factor
The Tamil Nadu government is not unduly worried about the higher hospitalisation rate, state Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan told ThePrint.
“Medical data is not mathematics, one needs to go into the depth of the cases. It depends on how testing is being done. A lot of the cases in our hospitals are incidental Covid where people are coming to the hospital for other things, doctors are testing them and they are positive,” he said.
“The availability of medical infrastructure, spread of private hospitals, all of these are a factor both here and in Maharashtra. It is more in the cities where there are more hospitals. But it is true that 15 per cent of the samples that we are sending for genome sequencing still test positive for Delta,” he added.
On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu reported 30,055 fresh Covid-19 cases, according to state government data. Over the last few weeks, there has been a surge in the state. As late as 4 January, the daily tally had been below 3,000 (2,731) in the state, although part of it also has to do with the fact that 13 of the state’s districts border Kerala, where numbers have been rising over the last few days, Radhakrishnan added.
‘Kerala seeing a late Omicron surge’
One state where numbers have been on a steady upward spiral is Kerala, which had briefly gone off the top of Covid charts. On Tuesday, the state reported 55,475 cases, according to the state’s health department bulletin. It added that “out of total 2,85,365 cases of infection, only 3.8 per cent of the active cases are admitted either in hospital/field hospitals”.
Reports of bed shortage from the state have been denied by state Health Minister Veena George.
“Kerala seems to be going through a late Omicron surge. The uptick there had not happened with Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata. In fact, all the southern states seem to have been somehow protected this time, even though the first cases of Omicron were detected in Karnataka. Karnataka is seeing a surge too, but there the focus currently is Bengaluru,” a senior central government official who has been looking at states’ data very closely since the start of the pandemic, told ThePrint.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: Omicron cases less severe than other waves, hospitalisation rate lower, shows study in Lancet