COIMBATORE: The district recorded 81 fresh Covid-19 cases and one death on Tuesday. While 86 people were discharged from government and private hospitals in the district, active cases stand at 738.
The total number of Covid deaths in the district has gone up to 657.
Though the health department has managed to bring down the number of Covid-19 cases to less than 90 a day, and deaths to an average of one person a day, the district continues to see deaths occurring within 24 hours of hospitalization. In December alone, nearly 20% of deaths occurred within 24 hours of hospitalization.
Of the 41 deaths due to Covid-19 recorded in December, eight occurred within 24 hours of hospitalization. Another seven deaths occurred within 48 hours of hospitalization, which means 36.5% of the deaths, or 15 out of 41, occured within two days of hospitalization. Nine out of 10 deaths have occurred in government hospitals.
“There is still a lack of awareness among people. Most of our deaths within 48 hours are patients with comorbidities who don’t get tested and hospitalized despite developing low grade fever and cold,” said ESI Hospital dean, Dr A Nirmala. “They come with both lungs severely affected, low oxygen saturation and high inflammatory markers.”
About 80% of deaths in December were patients with co-morbidities, with 53.3% of them with at least one co-morbidity and 26% having two co-morbidities. “Most deaths that occur within 48 hours are people with co-morbidities,” said Coimbatore Medical College Hospital dean, Dr P Kalidas.
Health department admits that private hospitals have largely reduced referring patients late to GH. “That has reduced, and most hospitals know the treatment protocol. So only patients who go to a doctor late end up dying within 24 hours,” says deputy director of public health Dr G Ramesh Kumar. “But hospitals continue interacting with patient attenders to find out why they came late to the hospitals, so we can figure out loopholes in awareness creation,” he adds.