Ghaziabad: Cis-Hindon localities account for more deaths during second wave

Ghaziabad: In the second wave of Covid-19, the top five residential segments with the highest death rate were located in the Cis-Hindon area, an analysis by the Ghaziabad health department has found

Ghaziabad: In the second wave of Covid-19, the top five residential segments with the highest death rate were located in the Cis-Hindon area, an analysis by the Ghaziabad health department has found.

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As per the analysis, the case fatality rate (CFR) was below 1% in all the residential segments across the district during the first wave, but it ranged from 1.44% to 2.66% in top five segments during the second wave.

The health department compiled the figures for the first wave from March 1 last year to March 31 of this year, while it took into account the death figures for the second wave from April 1 to May 31 this year.

The Ghaziabad city has two major areas separated by the Hindon river, namely Trans-Hindon on the west and Cis-Hindon on the east. The Cis-Hindon area includes localities such as Raj Nagar, Sanjay Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Gandhi Nagar and Shastri Nagar, while localities such as Indirapuram, Vaishali and Vasundhara come under the Tran-Hindon area.

For instance, during the second wave of the pandemic, the Raj Nagar segment reported 1,956 Covid cases and 52 deaths, with a CFR of 2.66 which was the highest death rate in Ghaziabad. The other four segments with high fatality rate were also from the Cis-Hindon area. These include Nehru Nagar/Gandhi Nagar segment with 1.81% CFR; Ghookhna with 1.61%; Vijay Nagar with 1.57% and Carte (Shastri Nagar, Govindpuram and others) with 1.44%.

“The death rate analysis of the first and second waves indicates that it was high in Cis-Hindon segments as compared to Trans-Hindon segments of Sahibabad, Indirapuram, Vaishali and Vasundhara which were high caseload areas. It could be due to better availability of private hospitals in the trans-Hindon area,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad.

“We are also waiting for the sero survey report. It will help determine the segments where more sero conversion took place after the first wave. We are trying further to make micro-analysis of the available trends with us to know the exact reasons behind the trends of death rate in different segments,” Dr Gupta added.

As per the figures, Indirapuram having 2,718 Covid cases reported 32 deaths at 1.18% during the second wave while Vaishali with 1,909 cases reported 18 deaths (0.94%). Similarly, Vasundhara reported 15 deaths out of 1,483 positive cases (1% CFR).

Experts are of view that early detection was the key in minimising deaths in the Trans-Hindon area. “It could be a factor that trans-Hindon localities have a number of private health care facilities, and the testing facilities were also easily available to residents. So, the treatment in such areas started early which led to reduced number of deaths. Besides, trans-Hindon is close to Delhi and Noida, so it is also possible that patients might have taken treatment in these cities as well,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad).

According to the state health bulletin of July 4, the Ghaziabad district has 55,553 total cases, which include 461 deaths and 25 active cases.

As per the analysis, the first wave of the pandemic resulted in 102 fatalities while 359 deaths took place during the second wave.