E-Paper
Chandigarh hospitals see record Covid deaths in April
April accounts for 25% Covid deaths at PGIMER since the outbreak; GMCH-32 sees 174 deaths this year, up from 168 in 2020
The second wave of Covid-19 in the region is proving to be deadlier with the number of deaths due to the virus in city hospitals seeing a massive spike, data suggests.
In the tertiary care hospitals of the city, which include Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, Covid fatalities till April this year have broken all previous records.
For instance, PGIMER’s official tracker suggests that of the 808 deaths recorded since March 2020 last year, 189 were logged in the month of April 2021, which is around 23% of the fatalities since the onset of the pandemic. Moreover, the April fatalities account for over 71% of the total 264 virus deaths reported so far this year.
Similarly, at GMCH-32, which saw 168 virus deaths in the 10 months of pandemic last year, the fatalities have already crossed the mark this. Out of the 174 deaths at the hospital this year, 38.5% were reported in the month of April so far. All the above figures are as per the official records up to April 22, 2021.
Experts attribute the spike in Covid deaths to the record number of infections being reported this year. However, the role of new variants in the deaths is not established.
PGIMER director Dr Jagat Ram said they usually receive patients in highly critical condition and as many of them turn out to be comorbid, their oxygen levels see sudden decline. Most of them come from the neighbouring states.
“Sometimes, patients brought for emergency surgery also turn out to be infected. No doubt the second wave is causing more absolute deaths,” he said.
Former head of community medicine and school of public health, Dr Rajesh Kumar said, “One of the main reasons for the record number of deaths is the severity of the second wave. However, the fatality ratio has not seen a major variation, which suggests that the role of mutant or late reporting is not the case here.”
Around 70% of the samples sent from PGIMER to the National Centre for Diseases Control had tested positive for the UK variant of Covid-19, while 20% showed presence of the 681 H mutant.
Prof PVM Lakshmi, senior epidemiologist at PGIMER, said that during the last peak, the cases were seeing a gradual rise and so was the trend with the fatalities, but the spike this time has been sudden which was reflected in the higher number of deaths reported this year.
“A record number of infections are being reported in April and the rise is steep which results in more deaths in less time period,” said Prof Lakshmi.
