‘Omicron will peak sometime in February, start dropping by March-April'

Chennai-headquartered Apollo Hospitals Group has already provided 8 million Covid19 vaccinations through its 200 centres across the country, launched Stay-i(quarantine facilities provided jointly with hotels) and ramped up healthcare initiatives. The group's president, Dr K Hariprasad, tells Rajesh Kurup that more variants of the virus are expected to emerge, but with less virulence than the initial strain. The increasing home healthcare and quarantine facilities have also provided a fillip to telemedicine, he added.

- Rajesh Kurup

The Omicron variant is spreading much faster than expected. How is the ground preparedness?

There is a definite spike in the number of cases, as Omicron is a very infectious variant. States have also been told to ensure uninterrupted supply of liquid medical oxygen (O2) tanks, strengthen 02 plants and maintain an adequate supply of O2 cylinders and concentrators.

As a group, Apollo has provided close to 8 million vaccinations through 200 centres across the country. We have ramped up our home healthcare, launched Stay-i and adopted technology to provide good medical supervision to Covid patients. We are much better prepared this time with oxygen plants, ventilators and medicines, including Molnupiravir (anti-viral used to treat Covid-19).

When do you expect the Omicron infections to peak?