Omicron: Hospitals across India get ready to handle surge in cases

Hospitals across the country are on high alert and gearing up to handle any possible future surge in Covid-19 cases amid growing concerns about the heavily mutated Omicron variant that has triggered travel bans across the globe, industry officials said on Monday.

Besides reserving isolation wards and ICUs for Covid-19 patients, hospitals have decided to scale up screening of patients arriving with travel history. "We have deputed additional manpower at our flu clinics across network hospitals to cater to any surge in the coming days," Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director at Max Healthcare, told ET.

"Patients arriving from the designated countries or those who declare a travel history to these in the last fortnight are undergoing a compulsory RT-PCR test."


Indraprastha Apollo Hospital has kept wards on standby to handle any possible surge in infections. "We have Covid clinic for mass screening and have wards on standby," said an official who requested anonymity. Apollo continues to follow the protocol that was put in place including RT-PCR test for the patients and antigen test for their attendants, the person said.

Bishnu Pangrahi, group head, medical strategy and operations at Fortis Healthcare, said the hospital chain has constituted a core team of experts that hold discussions and give suggestions.