Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, April 21: The new COVID strain is causing much more concern in the sense that the virus is being detected only after it has well and truly entrenched itself in the human body. Patients are going in for medical attention when 25 percent or more of their lungs have been damaged. After checkup they are being detected corona positive. By the time the test reports arrive, the patients develop severe breathing problems. Their oxygen levels gradually fall. In fact the level drops to below 80. Under such conditions, they require immediate oxygen and if it is not provided, patients’ conditions deteriorate rapidly. During the initial COVID wave, the oxygen level of patients rarely dropped below 87 percent but with the onset of the new strain or second wave, the level is dropping below 80.
Even doctors are finding it difficult to detect symptoms of the new COVID strain. Two patients at the MGMC Hospital complained of hearing problems and on being checked were found to be COVID positive. Other symptoms of the second wave COVID attack are tingling sensation in hands, itching, foggy vision, increased blood pressure and other new symptoms besides the prevailing ones. Certain positive cases are being detected after the patients are being made to undergo CT Scan where the scanned value is 35 or below.
According to knowledgeable sources if the CT value drops to below 22, patients need to be hospitalized. The new strain symptoms are eluding medics too. In fact, more than 55 doctors including those from TMH, Tata motors Hospital, MGMC Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Brahmanand Hospital and a few others have been detected COVID positive. Seventeen among them are reported to be in serious conditions and are under ventilator or oxygen support.
Some doctors have stated that by the time infections were being ascertained, the patients’ lungs had been considerably damaged. Deputy Superintendent of MGMC Hospital, Dr Nakul Prasad Chowdhary stated that the new strain was rapidly affecting the lungs. He said that by the time coronavirus symptoms were being detected in patients, their lungs were already 25 percent or more damaged. Dr Chowdhary said that this factor was of grave concern. He said that it was not as severe during the first wave.
