Lack of testing, late reporting to hospital, high number of Covid related deaths in SMCH

People in Assam by large and Barak Valley in particular are ignoring the severity of the disease and reporting at the eleventh hour to the hospital. There’s still a large section of people who do not believe in tests and vaccination. For the second day in a row, Silchar Medical College and Hospital has reported “3 deaths in the last 24 hours”. This is a matter of grave concern because the ratio of active patients to number of deaths is very high, almost 5:1. If the recent data trends are extrapolated, one out of five active patients have succumbed to different COVID related ailments.

In the last 24 hours, three patients- one, Abdul Rashid Sheikh of 81 years from Rongpur has passed away on the 29th January at 9:30 PM. He succumbed due to Acute Respiratory Deficiency Syndrome, enlargement of heart, acute kidney infection and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Another, Sunil Das, 65 of Gobinda Nagar, Cachar passed away today at 9:20 in the morning due to gall bladder perforation and septic shock. On the same day, Subimal Das of 67 from Lakhibazar Road, Karimganj also passed away at 11:30 AM. His cause of death were, Uremic Encephalopathy, acute kidney infection and he was also suffering from type 2 diabetes.

According to the SMCH Media Bulletin, at 5:00 PM today, there were 11 Active patients in the hospital, where 4 were on ventilator and 4 on oxygen support. The Medical College also detected 20 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours. 2 new patients were admitted and 4 were discharged today.

National Health Mission Assam’s media bulletin on 30th January reported 910 fresh Covid cases in the state. In Cachar the tally stood at 33, while neighbouring districts, Hailakandi and Karimganj reported 3 and 5 new cases respectively. This raises the question, why is the death rate not declining when the positive cases in the state and District are showing a downward line in the graph?