Covid mortality in 6 districts causes concern: State authorities believe late reporting by families key reason behind high number of deaths in these district

Bengaluru: Bengaluru and five other districts have accounted for four out of every five deaths in Karnataka related to Covid-19, although they together make up less than half of cases reported in the state.

The trend has raised concerns as authorities believe late reporting by the families of the affected could be a reason behind these districts reporting high death rates. The death rate per million population in these districts — Bidar, Bengaluru Urban, Kalaburgi, Davangere, Vijayapura and Dakshina Kannada — is between 2.9 and 8.8, compared with the state average of 2.2.

Till Sunday evening, Karnataka has reported 9,159 Covid-19 cases and 137 deaths, with a case fatality ratio of 1.5%. Of these, 3,925 cases and 110 deaths are reported from the six districts. Bengaluru has reported the highest number of deaths at 64, followed by Bidar (15), Kalaburgi (11), Vijayapura and Davangere (7 each), and Dakshina Kannada (6). Districts such as Udupi, Yadagiri, Ballari and Mandya have lower fatality rate despite having high numbers of confirmed cases.

The deaths, experts say, were mainly because of late detection and delayed treatment. “Early detection and early hospital admission of patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), especially among the aged and those with comorbidities, can reduce the death rate,” said S Sacchidanand, the vice chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Health Sciences and head of the panel on Covid death audit in Karnataka.

He said his team, tasked with the clinical aspect of fatality, had not looked at the micro aspects of why some districts had a high death rate.

“In general, the death pattern so far has been similar to the global trend. Most of those who have succumbed to the infection are above 60 and or with comorbidities. We have submitted the recommendations to the government based on our analysis of Covid deaths,” Sacchidanand said.



Karnataka health commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said the rise in the number of deaths in Bengaluru could also be because the city’s hospitals were admitting severely ill patients from neighbouring districts as well as states like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

“Not all deceased are from Bengaluru. Some of them are from neighbouring districts and states. Also, districts like Kalaburgi and Bidar had a lot of SARI cases in the initial stage,” Pandey told ET. He said the health department had asked district authorities to identify and test samples of ILI and SARI patients for early detection.

Taking note of the high mortality rate in the six districts, chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar on Sunday gave a fourpoint directive to district authorities. He has asked them to increase the testing of vulnerable categories and people with high public contact like street and market vendors, delivery personnel and frontline staff. The chief secretary has also directed them to strictly monitor private medical establishments and pharmacies for ILI and SARI cases. “Do quick contact-tracing and isolation and improve clinical management,” he has advised.