'Omicron May Cause Less Severe Disease But...': WHO Chief Scientist Warns of Overwhelmed Hospitals

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Friday said while the Omicron variant of Covid-19 may cause less severe disease, a small per cent of a huge number is still very large and can overwhelm health systems.

The top scientist said, “Hospitalizations are also rising, mostly in unvaccinated people. Though #Omicron may cause less severe disease, a small % of a huge number is still very large & can overwhelm health systems. Kudos to health workers around the world for two years of service!”

She also warned the spread of Omicron cases can still strain hospitals in India as “the surge is going to be very fast and many people are going to be sick.” Omicron will see the burden shift from hospitals to the out-patients department, from ICUs to home-based care, she was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Calling for scale-up in telehealth and telemedicine services, she said there is need to make sure preparedness for doctors and nurses in out-patients’ clinics. “Make sure we can treat people at home as much as possible or at primary care isolation centres where they get basic care if they don’t need advance care,” she said. “The whole burden of this outbreak will be more on out-patients and home-based services rather than ICU and hospital beds for severely ill,” she added.

The WHO Chief Scientist told CNBC-TV18 people to need to be prepared and not panic. “We need to be cautious. We need to be prepared, but not panic. What we can expect to see in India is a surge of Omicron cases, I think it is just beginning now in some of the cities and is going to infect a lot of people.”

She reiterated the need for wearing masks and ensuring access to primary healthcare. “If 90% of the population wore a mask whole time, you would drastically reduce transmission. That we need to focus on. Keeping in mind that Covid is not the only thing affecting our lives in terms of health. There are people who are dying of non-contagious diseases like cancer because they haven’t been able to take care for amid the pandemic. Burden of mental health going up. We saw for the first time in many years tuberculosis deaths went up last year because detection went down. That’s why we have to ensure we have people for primary healthcare,” she said.

The World Health Organization chief scientist had said that despite the Omicron variant infecting both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, it appears that the jabs are proving to be protective.

“Omicron infection numbers are high and occurring in both vaccinated and unvaccinated. But it appears that vaccines proving to be protective. The need for critical care doesn’t seem to be going up. It’s a good sign. Multiple factors account for vaccine effectiveness. One is the vaccine itself, second is biological factors like age – the older you are, the more vulnerable you are to the disease and third factor is waning of immunity,” the top scientist said.

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