Doctor consultations up 54% in a day, rise 2.5x in 3 days on Covid surge

Over half the consultations are for GPs and pulmonologists with concerns like fever, sore throat, headache, body pain, stuffy nose, Omicron spread, Covid-19 vaccine booster doses, and vaccines for kid

As Covid-19 continues to surge in the country, with close to 38,000 infections recorded on Tuesday, January 4, 2022, Covid-related doctor consultations see a massive jump of 50 per cent more than the previous day. The daily consultations have gone up more than 2.5 times since January 1, according to insights shared by Practo, India’s largest integrated healthcare company.

This is the highest single-day increase in doctor consultations in 120 days, since the decline of the deadly second wave. More than 50 per cent of all doctor consultations are for GPs (general practitioner) and Pulmonologists with major concerns like fever, sore throat, headache, body pain, stuffy nose, Omicron spread, Covid-19 vaccine booster doses, and vaccines for children, among others.

“We have seen a massive surge in the number of covid cases in the last one week indicating the start of a third wave. The festive season is one of the main reasons for the increase as people failed to follow covid protocols and gatherings became a super-spreader event,” said  Dr. Belliappa, a senior GP practising on Practo. “As seen during the first and second wave, telemedicine will continue to be a lifesaver, enabling people to reach out to medical professionals virtually. Digital healthcare companies like Practo are taking efforts to ensure that access to medical healthcare during these times is never a challenge for the people.”

Around 85 per cent of these queries have come from metro cities, some of which are witnessing a steady rise in the number of positive cases every day. At 132 per cent, Mumbai saw the highest growth in GP-related consultations since January 1,  followed by Kolkata (106 per cent), Delhi NCR (95 per cent), Bangalore (75 per cent), Chennai (47 per cent) and Hyderabad (42 per cent). Queries in non-metro cities increased by 53 per cent during the same time period. Over 50 per cent of these consultations came from those in the age group 21-30, followed by 31-40 (40 per cent), 41-50 (10 per cent).

Practo said these insights were developed to understand the healthcare patterns of Indians amidst the outbreak of Covid-19 while adhering to our stringent data security and privacy measures. These insights have been created with aggregated and anonymized sets of data from our users who share their age and location with us which is optional. Practo said the fundamental tenet of the firm is ensuring that the patients’ health information is safe, secure, and private.

Backed by investors such as Sequoia and Tencent, Practo now has about 300 million unique users, and is present in over 200 cities in India, and 20 other countries. There are over 100,000 doctors on the platform and about 76,000 hospitals and clinics.

Practo aims to expand its presence from 16,000 pin codes in India to 25,000 this year, which includes making significant headway into corporate health plans.