Tirupati: Expert panel to focus on reducing Covid death rate

Tirupati: District collector Dr N Bharat Gupta who appointed an expert committee last week to probe into the causes of increasing Covid-19 deaths and to conduct an audit into pandemic death toll in the district, chaired its first meeting here on Thursday. Joint collector (development) V Veera Brahmam, district medical and health officer (DMHO) Dr M Penchalaiah and DCHS Dr P Saralamma also were present.

During the meeting, the collector said that the goal should be to reduce the death rate. While almost 510 deaths occurred in the district so far, Tirupati accounts for 174 of them despite having good medical facilities, which causes concern.

The delay in shifting Covid positive patients to hospitals and some of them were taking their own treatment for initial 3-4 days before admitting to hospitals to be controlled. Among the deaths, 209 were under the age group of 46-60 while another 228 are beyond 61 years. In view of this, Gupta directed the officials not to allow those above the age of 50 years for home isolation.

Doctors have to reach out to people widely on the use of face masks, hand sanitisers and physical distancing through radio, WhatsApp and local channels to bring awareness. Making a key suggestion, he asked the Ruia hospital doctors to focus on shifting those patients who do not require oxygen after one week treatment to Covid care centres so that more oxygen beds will be available for new patients.

All doctors in PHCs, CHCs, main hospitals and Covid care centres should discuss every Friday on various treatment protocols to provide a uniform treatment pattern. Dr Ram and Dr Alladi Mohan of SVIMS, Dr S Subba Rao of Ruia hospital and Dr P Krishna Prasanthi from IMA should give their suggestions and the focus of everyone should be on reducing the current death rate of 0.9 per cent to much lower levels.