The Pune district reported 979 deaths in total as of July 9, among these 166 fatalities or 17 per cent of the total deaths were reported in just 72 hours of the patient being admitted in a hospital as opposed to 20 per cent reported in the first 72 hours as of June 12.
While there has been a drop in the number of deaths reported in a shorter duration of time, a lack of awareness among patients to reach the hospital on time is resulting in the deaths in just a few days of admission.
With less time for treatment, the hospitals are left with very fewer options to treat the patient resulting in an escalation of symptoms and eventually death. The Sassoon General hospital which reported the most deaths, 306 of the 800 reported from Pune city, received over 10 Covid-19 positive patients who were brought dead to the hospital. Sassoon hospital dean Dr Murlidhar Tambe was not available for a response despite repeated attempts.
Dr Ashok Nanadapurkar, nodal officer, Pune district said, “One of the probable reasons could be lack of awareness among citizens regarding the symptoms. The earlier the symptoms are reported the treatment scope is wider. While earlier there was a social stigma associated with the infection but now it has subsided. People need to reach out to the hospital even if they feel the slightest symptoms, especially if they are moving around for work or other purpose or if they are living in containment zones. While there are newer symptoms being reported by the WHO, the latest additions being diarrhoea or lack of sense of smell and taste, cold, cough and fever are the most common ones. It is also seen that people often seek over the counter medicines to treat flu which suppresses the fever but then the infection continues to spread which leads to further complications by the time they reach out to a hospital.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr Ashok Nanadapurkar, nodal officer, Pune district said, “One of the probable reasons could be lack of awareness among citizens regarding the symptoms. The earlier the symptoms are reported the treatment scope is wider. While earlier there was a social stigma associated with the infection but now it has subsided. People need to reach out to the hospital even if they feel the slightest symptoms, especially if they are moving around for work or other purpose or if they are living in containment zones. While there are newer symptoms being reported by the WHO, the latest additions being diarrhoea or lack of sense of smell and taste, cold, cough and fever are the most common ones. It is also seen that people often seek over the counter medicines to treat flu which suppresses the fever but then the infection continues to spread which leads to further complications by the time they reach out to a hospital.”
{{/usCountry}}In the 979 deaths in the district, 70 occurred in just 0-24 hours post-hospital admission, 54 deaths took place in 24-48 hours post-hospital admission while 42 deaths took place in 48-72 hours post-hospital admission. In the 979 total deaths, 834 or 85 per cent of the deaths had associated risk factors or were comorbid while the remaining 145 or 15 per cent had no comorbidities.