The Covid count in West Bengal has gone down and the number of new cases on certain days remains below 100, but people suffering from the disease are still dying, according to the state health department. Doctors and health department officials said the deaths are mostly because of comorbidities. So, people with chronic ailments and those who are elderly should continue to be careful.
According to the state health department data, as many as 44 Covid patients died in the past 39 days till Wednesday, October 19.
West Bengal has last reported zero Covid death on September 11. Since then there has been at least one death every day, the health department’s bulletin shows. Three Covid patients died on September 26 and two each on September 27, 28 and 29. Since September 30, till Wednesday, one Covid patient died every day.
At the government-run MR Bangur Superspeciality Hospital, there were 12 patients in the Covid ward on Wednesday, of whom three were in the critical care unit, said an official of the hospital.
“Although the number of Covid patients admitted has gone down from around 700 a few months ago to 12, we are still having a few Covid patients whose condition is turning critical,” the official said.
“Most of the Covid patients who are dying were elderly and/or suffering from comorbidities. We need to remember that Covid is still around and those who are elderly and have comorbidities should take precautions,” said a senior official of the health department.
Doctors are also of a similar opinion.
“Currently, the Covid virus is mostly causing mild disease. There are very few reports of moderate or severe disease. It seems that most of the deaths are caused not by Covid itself but by the comorbidities the patients were suffering from,” said Chandramouli Bhattacharya, infectious disease expert at Peerless Hospital.
“This trend will probably continue for some time.” Peerless Hospital had one Covid patient admitted on Wednesday. “The patient is suffering from kidney ailments. For more than a month, we are having only a handful of Covid cases, mostly those with comorbidities,” said Sudipta Mitra, chief executive of Peerless Hospital.
At several hospitals, those getting admitted with other ailments are being incidentally diagnosed with Covid. The RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences is having two to three Covid patients admitted daily on an average.
“Most of these patients have comorbidities like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or cardiac ailment. Their family members are insisting on admission because if their conditions worsen, the situation can be better managed at the hospital than at home,” said R. Venkatesh, COO, east and south, Narayana Health, which runs the RN Tagore hospital.
At AMRI hospitals, too, patients getting admitted with other ailments are being diagnosed with Covid. Such patients are being shifted to isolation wards. “But that number is very few in all our three units (in Dhakuria, Mukundapur and Salt Lake),” said Rupak Barua, group CEO of AMRI.