This story is from May 23, 2021

Karnataka: Chamarajanagar logs 204 Covid-19 deaths in 2 months

Chamarajanagar district, once a green zone, has reported 204 Covid-19 deaths in the past two months. Health officials are worried as the district has seen eight to 10 fatalities daily for the past 18 days, registering a mortality rate of more than 1.6 per cent, which is higher than the state’s average.
Karnataka: Chamarajanagar logs 204 Covid-19 deaths in 2 months
Beds are being readied at a health centre in Bengaluru on Saturday. Districts also need more such facilities to treat cases (PTI photo)
MYSURU: Chamarajanagar district, once a green zone, has reported 204 Covid-19 deaths in the past two months. Health officials are worried as the district has seen eight to 10 fatalities daily for the past 18 days, registering a mortality rate of more than 1.6 per cent, which is higher than the state’s average.
One of the main contributing factors is the spread of coronavirus in villages, where patients ordered to stay in home isolation are allegedly flouting guidelines and where there appears to be a lack of seriousness about the crisis.
Self-medication to avoid the stigma associated with the disease is compounding the problems.
Currently, there are 3,756 active cases in the district. More than 6,120 primary contacts and 2,148 secondary ones are in home isolation.
In the first wave of Covid-19 last year, the mortality rate was lower and recoveries were high. In the past two months, especially in April, positivity and mortality rates have spiked.
“The district administration failed to ramp up the infrastructure of primary and community health centres. Delayed oxygen supply, non-availability of oxygenated beds, a slower testing effort in villages despite rising infections, and overall lack of attention on rural areas have led to the current situation,” said Badagalapura Nagendra, the president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha.
He alleged that officials didn’t take measures such as opening more Covid care centres and speeding up the vaccination drive even after 56 out of 59 villages in the district were declared as containment zones.
Medical experts say delayed hospital admission is affecting outcomes. Many people ignore the advice for a Covid-19 test or check-up and rush to the hospital only after their oxygen saturation level drops. “If diagnosis and consultations are not done on time, the risks increase depending on the patients’ complications,” said Dr Sanjiv, the dean and director of the Chamarajanagar Institute of Health Sciences.
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