Teen among 12 Tamil Nadu fatalities; must test more, say experts

CHENNAI: A teenage girl was among the 12 people reported dead because of Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, pushing the death toll to 220. The state’s case tally reached 27,256 with 1,384 fresh cases, 1,072 of them in Chennai.
The 17-year-old, the youngest Covid-19 casualty in the state, was insulin-dependent (or type 1 diabetes). She was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai at 5.28pm on Wednesday, but died four hours later following a cardiopulmonary arrest. “She was brought too late to hospital. She had complications including uncontrolled diabetes and acute kidney injury,” said a doctor who attended on her.

As concerns grow over the rising toll, senior doctors and public health experts say increasing testing will help the state detect cases early. On Thursday, the state increased the number of people tested to 15,991 after pressure from the expert medical committee that includes epidemiologists, public health experts and doctors. “We told the state that if we don’t increase tests, we will not be able to detect cases early. Late admissions will increase case load, complications and fatalities,” said former city health officer Dr P Kuganantham. National Institute of Epidemiology deputy director Dr Prabhdeep Kaur had said the state should daily test at least 18,000 people, including 10,000 in Chennai and excluding migrants.
“Most of those who succumbed to the viral infection were either brought in late or had serious health conditions,” said Kilpauk Medical College Dean Dr P Vasanthamani.
A 25-year-old woman’s death was brought into the Covid registry four day after doctors at Uthangarai Government Hospital in Krishnagiri had declared it. Doctors said the woman with a history of asthma was brought to hospital with breathing difficulty.
A 33-year-old woman, who died on Wednesday, was referred to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on May 23, ten days after a C-section delivery. Doctors said she has a history of recurrent gestational diabetes. One of the twins she delivered prematurely died within minutes awhile the other boy is stable at the neonatal care unit of the Institute of Child Health. The day’s toll registry had two people in their 40s, two in the 50s and four in their 60s. The oldest was a 76 –year-old man. All of them had complications such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiac ailments.
Chennai’s case tally is now 18,693 after the highest single-day spike of 1,072. The city has seen 167 deaths. After Chennai, neighbouring Chengalpattu has the largest number of cases, 1,533, and deaths, 14. Another of Chennai’s neighbours, Tiruvallur, has logged 1,127 cases and 11 deaths so far. All the other districts in the state have recorded below 500 cases so far.
Among the eleven returnees who tested positive on Thursday was one passenger from Kuwait, five were from Maharashtra, four from Telangana and one from Kerala. So far, 1,718 returnees have tested positive, with the most in Tirunelveli (266), Kallakuruchi (182), and Tuticorin (168) and Salem (129).
The state discharged 585 patients on Thursday, taking the number of those cured to nine short of 15,000. At the end of the day, there were 12,132 active cases.