BENGALURU: Twelve of Karnataka’s 30 districts have been reporting zero Covid-19 fatalities over the past seven days. The plummeting Covid fatality rate saw Bengaluru Urban district reporting one death on Thursday.
Yadgir, Shivamogga, Ramanagara, Mandya, Haveri, Gadag, Dharwad, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Chikkamagaluru, Belagavi and Bagalkot have not and any fatalities in the past week, according to the state Covid war room data for Thursday. Dharwad reported one death on Friday.
In addition, no Covid patient has died in the past 15 days in five of these districts — Yadgir, Shivamogga, Mandya, Gadag and Bagalkot.
Ballari district had worst CFR in state in last 7 days
Case fatality rate (CFR) is an important marker to determine the magnitude of the pandemic. In terms of CFR in the past seven days, the problem areas in the state are Ballari (where it is 2.7%), Chamarajanagara 2.6 % and Koppal, Hassan and Bengaluru Rural 2%. Bengaluru Urban has a CFR of 0.9%, same as the state.
Though Ballari tops the state in terms of CFR, the district has seen five deaths in the past15 days, says SS Nakul, Ballari deputy commissioner. “The CFR is always calculated considering the active cases. We have had some cases that required prolonged hospital stay for more than 25 days and that way the number of active cases would look higher, giving a higher ratio. Besides, cases from neighbouring districts are also coming to us. We also get patients from Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh. When patients from neighbouring districts die in Ballari, they become part of Ballari’s statistics,” says Nakul.
According to sources, patients from Koppal and Raichur are referred to Ballari. “In that way, some of our districts are bearing the fatalities of patients from other districts,” said health department authorities. Dr Anoop Amarnath, geriatrician and member of Critical Care Support Team for Covid management in the state government, says the standardization of critical care and gradual decline in the number of cases have helped in preventing deaths. “The e-ICU rounds are continuing every day. We look into severe cases. The local doctors have been managing the cases with standardisation of care,” says Dr Amarnath.
According to Dr Giridhara R Babu, epidemiologist, member, Technical Advisory Committee for Covid management in the state, death audit must be beefed up in districts where a high fatality rate is seen. “There is no reason why Bengaluru Rural should have 2% CFR, when it is closer to Bengaluru which has required medical facilities available. Syndromic approach and early detection of cases have to increase in districts that have seen high CFR in the past 15 days,” says Dr Babu.