"Surge Will Be So Fast," Warns WHO Expert Soumya Swaminathan
NDTV
The Omicron outbreak, which has triggered fresh concerns globally and raised an alarm, will see the burden shift from hospitals to the out-patients department, from ICUs to home-based care, Dr Soumya Swaminathan said.
The biggest challenge India will face amid the Omicron crisis will be the sudden need for medical care, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said. "The surge is going to be very fast and many people are going to be sick," she warned with the new variant of concern already driving up cases across the world.
The Omicron outbreak, which has triggered fresh concerns globally and raised an alarm, will see the burden shift from hospitals to the out-patients department, from ICUs to home-based care, Dr Swaminathan said.
"People are worried. You may not have symptoms but you would want to talk to a doctor, you'd want to see a healthcare worker, and you'd want advice. That's what we will have to prepare for," she said.
The Chief Scientist of the global health body called for an urgent ramping up of teleconsultation services to tackle the Omicron-fuelled surge. "Maybe, this is the time to really scale up the telehealth and telemedicine services to make sure we have enough 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.
