Teenager’s death due to COVID sparks concern

CHENNAI: With a 17-year-old girl from Chennai becoming the State’s youngest casualty of COVID- 19, experts have voiced concern over the rise in deaths occurring soon after hospital admission. They say the trend suggests a delay in detection and treatment.

The girl, who died Wednesday, tested positive on Tuesday. She was admitted to RGGGH on Wednesday and died within the next four hours. Similarly, a 25-year-old woman from Vellore with bronchial asthma died just 30 minutes after admission at the Uthangarai Government Hospital in Krishnagiri on May 31.

Among the deceased was also a 33-yearold post-natal mother with recurrent gestational diabetes. She died four days after being admitted. Among those who have tested positive is DMK MLA J Anbazhagan, who is in a critical condition. According to a statement from Rela Institute and Medical Centre, he tested positive on admission with respiratory distress on June 2. “He is currently getting 80 per cent oxygen through ventilator and his condition remains unchanged for the last 24 hours,” the statement said.

Warning to violators
Addressing the media, Corporation Commissioner G Prakash warned those violating home quarantine rules. “We have developed a system to track these violators who move freely outside. It will alert us and we will take them to institutional quarantine with the help of police.

This will also apply to extended contacts of COVID-19 patients who may be asymptomatic and are supposed to be under home quarantine.” Details of patients under home isolation will be given to the respective police stations, Prakash said. Nodal officer J Radhakrishnan said, “In places like VR Pillai Street, cases have come down to zero.

Even in Thideer Nagar, cases have come down from 39 to zero. We are monitoring the ward-wise data. However, in some areas, people are still not using masks which is leading to the infection spilling over, for instance from Royapuram to its neighbouring Tiruvottiyur zone.” To a question on organisations allegedly demanding a ‘COVID-19 negative’ certificate for taking recovered patients back to work, Prakash said it was illegal to do so and that strict action will be taken against those demanding them.

Central team visits TN
However, amid the gloom surrounding the spike in cases, Rajendra Ratnoo, Central Nodal Officer coordinating between the Central and State governments, said Tamil Nadu has the lowest mortality rate in the country. “We are here to understand the best practices being followed here. We should be able to prevent and contain the spread of the virus but if it spreads, we should at least not lose lives.

Considering that aspect, Tamil Nadu has emerged the best in the country.” Ratnoo addressed the media along with Prakash. He said that his team, scheduled to be in the city for three days, will look into the possibility of implementing Tamil Nadu’s best practices elsewhere in the country and vice versa. “This is not a fault-finding exercise. We are here for mutual learning,” he said.

On questions of why the mortality rate here could be lower than the rest of the country, Ratnoo said that while it may be too early to come to a conclusion, the hypothesis is that early detection due to the large number of testing may have helped. Prakash said that the city has reached 18,000 tests per million.

BIG PICTURE

The city’s tally currently is 18,693
10 of the 12 deaths reported on Thursday belonged to Chennai
As on June 3, 846 passengers who arrived on ships at Chennai and Thoothukudi ports were screened; none tested positive
Close to 19,000 air travellers were screened in State; 32 were found positive