Covid: 60-plus fatalities rise in city

Kumaran P. | NT

Bengaluru: While the city saw a dip of nearly 1,000 Covid cases on Sunday, and the recovery rate is at 93 per cent, the plight of 60-plus patients remains a matter of concern for health experts.

Statistics over the last four days in Bengaluru show that out of 20 dead, 15 of them are above 60 years of age, and two were above 90.

These cases are now admitted under the Influenza like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases. Experts have been saying that senior citizens are always at risk and children too. Interestingly, there have been deaths even of those in the age group of 6-35 years.

Why are older people vulnerable?

Dr Jagadish Hiremath, Chairman at Aasra Hospital said, “Currently Covid- 19 infection is seen like a seasonal flu among the old aged group. Even those that are suffering from various health issues are also recovering faster compared to the previous two waves. In my opinion the virus is not causing severe infections among any given age group.”

“Since during the last two ways we have seen those that are aged 60 and above severe form of infection, it is important that in times when infection is spreading faster people from vulnerable groups must continue following Covid appropriate behaviour.”

Children are not much affected, say doctors, but they are the super spreaders. They may be just having symptoms such as cold and cough, but will pass it on to the elders. An expert said, “This is the reason why from the beginning we were telling every single parent that they need to keep their kids safe.”

“Incidence of Covid-19 has shown a significant rise over last week. Majority of children have fever, cough and cold lasting 2-3 days. Deaths purely because of Covid are very uncommon among the children, though not impossible. We are seeing many children getting admitted with other reasons but are incidentally tested positive. So, deaths if they happen need to be analysed,” said Dr Raksha Shetty, Head, Pediatric Intensive Care Services, Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Marathahalli.

On Sunday, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said that the state’s positivity rate is now close to 20 per cent as cases are rising in the rest of Karnataka. Interestingly, even the deaths are rising in other districts.