Covid deaths touch 500 in Chittoor

Tirupati: Continuing the death spree in Chittoor district which put it on the top of the table, the number of Covid deaths have touched 500 mark followed by Guntur and East Godavari with around 450 deaths. However, in terms of the number of positive cases, the district has yet to reach 50,000 mark with its current tally of almost 47,000 cases whereas a few other districts like East Godavari, Kurnool and Anantapur were much ahead.

While the increasing deaths have become a cause of concern, an analysis over the 98 deaths happened between July 27 to August 10 revealed that 27 per cent of the victims were brought to the hospital at the last minute with breathlessness. After that the percentage had fallen to zero per cent which implies that the brought dead cases have come to zero now, said the District Collector Dr N Bharat Gupta.

Initially, many deaths happened within one day of admission which has gone up to three days and even more now. Though the number of deaths were not coming down, the case fatality ratio could be maintained between 1 to 1.1 per cent now, he revealed. He said the number of Covid tests have gone up steeply from around 2,000 in July first week to almost 6,000 now.

"My appeal to the people is that they should go for testing only when they have any symptoms and if they are the primary or secondary contacts of any infected person. Without this, going for frequent testing as it is free is nothing but wastage of resources and the services may not reach those who are in need of them really," he explained.

Though 250 ventilators available in the district, staff are required to utilise them in full capacity. The Collector observed that it would be very difficult to keep those home isolation under surveillance and they should follow some restraint from coming out of their homes.

Meanwhile, Tirupati urban and rural account for about 23,000 cases in the total district tally and more than 200 deaths. Giving some respite, there are only about 10,000 active cases while the others were cured and discharged. Among the active cases a little over 4,300 have been under home isolation while others have been admitted in Covid hospitals and care centres in both government and private sectors.