Coimbatore: On a day when Covid-19 case count of Coimbatore surged past the 40,000-mark, the third district to cross the numbers in Tamil Nadu, there was something for health workers to heave a sigh of relief.
The number of fresh Covid cases dropped to less than 300 on Monday as the district recorded only 290 cases.
The rate of increase has slowed down further as it took more than two days for the district to add the latest 1,000 fresh cases unlike the past few weeks.
With 208 patients getting discharged from isolation in hospitals, Covid care centres and homes, the number of active cases stood at 3,895. This also took the total number of people recovered to 35,689 taking the recovery rate to an all-time high of 89%. The district also recorded one more death taking the toll to 524.
The lone victim to the virus was a 73-year-old hypertensive woman who was admitted with low saturation and breathlessness to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on October 14 and tested positive on October 15. She died on Saturday of bilateral broncho pneumonia and her brain had gotten affected due to oxygen deprivation. The death rate also fell to an all-time low of 1.3%.
Increase in testing, testing of about 10 to 15 contacts per positive person and early treatment is attributed for fall of Covid numbers.
The early treatment has also resulted in number of deaths falling to around 15 a day and death rate dropped drastically. “Even as we were working to arrest the spread, we decided to focus on reducing the mortality rate,’’ deputy director of public health Dr G Ramesh Kumar said. And by increasing the samples being tested in districts like Coimbatore, the positivity rate which was 11% in August-mid reduced to 8% in September-mid.
“We were constantly in touch with doctors abroad as well as those in Mumbai and Chennai to give advice on adopting best prevention and treatment practices,” Ramesh Kumar said.
The death rate has reduced by a third from 0.25% to 0.08%. “Though many districts in the region saw a spike in cases and deaths at different phases, almost all the districts are seeing cases decrease,” former director of public health Dr K Kolandaswamy said.
“Now that all the hospitals, health department staff and corporation have breathing space, if they capitalize and quickly isolate the fresh cases coming up, the curve will flatline in another month or so,” he said.