38% of Himachal Pradesh deaths within 24 hrs of hospitalisation

Pratibha Chauhan

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 25

About 38 per cent of the Covid deaths in Himachal Pradesh occurred within 24 hours of hospitalisation, indicating the delay in seeking medical assistance is a major reason behind the high mortality rate in the state.

An analysis of the 2,752 deaths (till May 23) shows that about half of these took place either at home, on way to hospital or within 24 hours of being admitted to a health institution.

In all, 2,843 persons, of the 1,81,256 tested positive, have succumbed to the virus after the outbreak of the pandemic. “The delay in shifting patients to hospital is to be blamed for the high case fatality rate (CFR),” said Chief Minister

Jai Ram Thakur. Despite daily positive cases dropping from over 5,000 to below 2,000 currently, the 24-hour fatality count still stands around 55 to 60, which is quite high for a small state like Himachal.

“The data reflects that 49.8 per cent patients died due to delay in seeking medical help,” said Nipun Jindal, Mission Director, National Health Mission. He appealed to the people to watch out for the warning signs in patients, the main being oxygen saturation falling below 94 per cent even after a six-minute walk test.

The district-wise highest deaths at home have occurred in Kangra (64), Mandi (39) and Hamirpur (29) and the deaths within 24 hours of hospitalisation in Kangra (42), Mandi (23) and Solan and Shimla (12 each).