50% Covid patients who died in Haryana in May, June had no comorbidities

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 28

More than 50 per cent of Covid victims, who died of the virus in the past two months, did not have any comorbidities, as per the official records of the state Health Department.

As per the weekly status report of Covid in the state, 9,385 persons died of Covid till Sunday, of which 3,501 (37 per cent) did not have any comorbidities. As many as 5,598 persons died between April 27 and June 27 and of these 2,819 (50.38 per cent) did not have any underlying medical condition.

The share of multiple comorbidities among Covid victims, which was 46 per cent of total fatalities till April 26, came down to 29 per cent till Sunday.

Diabetes mellitus, considered the single largest underlying condition in Covid mortalities, remained almost unchanged during the second wave, though the percentage of deaths with this condition moved slightly up from 12 per cent on April 26 to 13 per cent on June 27.

Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, head of the pulmonary medicine department, PGIMS-Rohtak, and state nodal officer for Covid, said he was not surprised by an increase in the deaths of non-comorbid patients during the second wave, because the fatalities depended on several factors and not on comorbidities alone, which was definitely a major factor.

“The severity of the disease, virulence of the virus, time taken by a patient to get medical aid, person’s own immune response and genetic factors were equally responsible for fatalities,” said Dr Chaudhary.

He said while virulence and severity were definitely higher during the second wave, it had also been observed that in many cases, while parents and their children had severe infections, their spouses did not get infection, or even if they did get, it was not that severe.

“It was also observed that many patients, who were under home isolation, remained in denial mode even after their condition warranted hospitalisation and finally, when they did arrive in hospitals, it was already too late. Similarly, several others kept taking medicines, including steroid, on their own, thereby worsening their condition,” added Dr Chaudhary.

Meanwhile, the weekly new cases have dipped to 960 this time while 139 persons lost their lives in the past seven days.

The total number of active cases in the state has come down to 1,685 with only six districts having 100 or more active cases.

Hisar has the maximum 183 active cases, followed by Panipat (162), Sirsa (160), Bhiwani (123) and Panchkula (101).