Great relief as number of Covid-19 deaths down in Bihar

PATNA: While the daily Covid-19 caseload has been drastically decreasing with each passing day since mid January, the number of deaths was a matter of concern till Saturday when nine persons died due to the virus. But there was a great relief on Sunday as only two official Covid deaths were reported in the state.
In this third wave, January 14 had the maximum 6541 new cases but only two deaths.Though the number of new cases has been declining since then, 11 Covid patients died on January 19 and the number was same on January 21. As on January 19, Bihar had 4,063 cases, which came down to 2,768 on Sunday.
Similar trend was also seen during the second wave, when deaths slightly increased after the peak while the daily caseloads were decreasing. During the second wave, cases started decreasing from May 7 onwards. Bihar had 15,126 new cases and 90 deaths on May 6. After a week, on May 13, the daily Covid caseload reduced to 7,752, but the deaths reported remained 90.
Nodal incharge for Covid-19 at AIIMS-Patna, Dr Sanjeev Kumar, said there has been a trend that the number of deaths continues to rise for sometime even after the declining trend in daily caseload. He cited late hospitalisation as one of the reasons. “Many people who got infected during the peak, but came to the hospital late,” he said. He further said most of the patients died of Covid had co-morbidities.
However, he said, 14-15 daily deaths were reported at his hospital during the second wave, while the maximum seven patients died on any single day this time.
IGIMS superintendent Dr Manish Mandal as well as the nodal inchrage of Covid-19 at JLNMCH, Dr H S Sharma, said the deaths in the third wave were much less than the number of patients who died during the second wave. “All the patients who have died at my hospital actually came for some other treatment. However, as per the protocol, we had to test them for Covid and they were found positive. Most of the deaths happened because of haemorrhage or stroke,” Dr Mandal said.