76% Covid deaths in past 3 weeks are of people with comorbidities

Kolkata: Over 76 per cent of those who died of Covid in Bengal in the past three weeks had comorbidity issues while only 4 per cent of people who died in Covid were below 30, reveals a study conducted by the state health department.

A 6-member committee was earlier constituted by the state health department to examine the exact causes behind all these Covid deaths which occurred over a span of three weeks. The committee has submitted its report to the Swasthya Bhawan. It said that around 76 percent of the total number of victims had comorbidity issues. Out of the total Covid deaths, around 72 percent were aged around 60 and above. Around 4 percent of fatalities were of those below the age of 30. In the age bracket 31-60, around 23 percent deaths have been reported.

According to sources, the study was carried out on over 370 people who died of Covid in Bengal in the past 3 weeks. Out of over 370 fatalities around 285 had comorbidity while around 268 were aged over 60.

The expert committee has also recommended the state health department to spread awareness among the family members of elderly people recovering from Covid so that they can be taken care of immediately after their recovery from the deadly disease. The Committee also suggested that tests must be performed on the elderly people if they show some symptoms. In case of elderly comorbid patients the deterioration occurs very fast after the infection. The elderly people mostly required critical care support this time while the younger patients have taken treatment from home.

Most of the infected patients have no such symptoms this time.

During the current surge of Covid infection, most of the patients admitted to the hospitals were elderly people.

Despite the daily Covid infected cases crossing 20,000 marks in Bengal on an average basis last week, the hospital admission rate remained much on the lower side this time compared to the last wave. The hospital admission rate this time remained around 5-6 percent.

The hospital admission rate remained around 40 per cent when the daily infection reached its peak during May last year.