Recovery is faster, say patients who had Covid in 2nd wave too

Gurgaon: Prakash Sharma (52) had the Covid report in his hand. He had tested positive — for the second time. He sniffed his hand, he could smell. A couple of bites into the biscuit, he hadn’t lost taste either. There was no breathing distress too.
This wasn’t like the last time. Sharma, a private firm employee, is among many others in the city who have been found to have Covid in the subsequent waves.
Both he and his family agreed that though the virus is more infectious this time, it isn’t as virulent as the deadly second wave.
Four days of cough and body ache, Sharma decided to get himself tested on January 4. Though the symptoms were mild, he was worried all the more because he had diabetes.
“My wife was extremely worried this time as my oxygen level had plunged to 85 the last time I tested positive on May 31. I had to be wheeled into a hospital,” Sharma told TOI, adding that he and his family get shivers just thinking about that.
But, it’s different this time. “Last time, I had to be put on a ventilator for three days. But this time, a home isolation for a week was enough. Unlike the last time, when I was given several high-dose medicines and injections, just a few basic tablets did the trick. Our friends and neighbours reached out to us with help,” he added.
For many like Sharma, the recovery phase after Covid has been quite faster and less challenging than the second wave. Several patients TOI spoke to said they had not been experiencing breathlessness, fatigue, palpitation or joint pain — quite common for patients in the weeks after recovering in the previous phase.
In the second wave, many patients had viral pneumonia in the lungs, which caused other organs such as the heart, kidney and brain to witness inflammation. This lingered on for months and slowed down the recovery process. This, in turn, led to anxiety among patients that they might get infected again.
Most patients in home isolation are taking less than seven days to recover in the current wave, according to doctors. Aakash Kumar (42), who tested positive on January 4 after three days of fever, said he had already started to feel better in three days. “When I had Covid in June, I had to be put on oxygen support. But this time, I had been taking only antibiotics. My wife, son and daughter were infected too. We were all in home isolation and spent time together. Even our neighbours cooked meals and brought for us. It was a community effort to win over the virus. I think people have slowly realised they will have to live with the virus,” said Kumar, a resident of Sector 31. “The last time, the infection had an effect on my mental health. It broke me from within.”
According to officials, nearly 95% patients in the city have recovered despite surging cases. “Yes, people are recovering much faster as the virus is not affecting the lungs in maximum cases. With time, our teams are also well-versed in handling home isolation cases,” said Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.
Although many of the symptoms are similar to that in the previous wave, such as cough, cold, fever, body ache and so on, patients are also experiencing chills and headaches this time. Doctors are mostly advising anti-inflammatory drugs like paracetamol and seven days of home isolation.
“Home isolation is more than enough. No unnecessary tests or hospitalisation are required in case of mild symptoms. In the last wave, we noticed that around 30% had persistent fever for more than 5-6 days, followed by lung infection, low oxygen level and in some cases, even clotting. Most of them required treatment accordingly, like domiciliary oxygen, hospital admissions both in wards and ICUs, depending upon the severity. Number wise, more people have been affected this time. But the severity is practically negligible,” said Dr Amitabha Ghosh, senior consultant (internal medicine) at Manipal Hospital.
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