48% of COVID-19 deaths in Telangana among 60-plus

All except one suffered from one or more medical conditions

Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department workers spray Sodium hypochlorite solution as a part of operations to prevent spread of COVID-19, at Charminar in Hyderabad on Sunday, April 19, 2020.

Of the 25 COVID-19 deaths reported in Telangana, a majority had co-morbidities such as hypertension and diabetes. And all except one suffered from one or more medical conditions.

 

Officials have been stressing that the elderly with co-morbities are at greater risk if they contract the infectious disease.

Even statistics provided by the Health Minister’s office has shown that 12 out of the 25 people who died were above 60 years old, accounting for 48% of the total fatalities.

According to the data, 18 of them either had hypertension, diabetes or sepsis. Three had Severe Acute Respiratory Infection and one suffered from pneumonia — both conditions causes respiratory distress.

Among the oldest to die were two 74-year-olds. One of them was a woman, who had either hypertension or diabetes, while the other, a male patient, had either of the two medical conditions and sepsis.

The youngest was a 45-days-old baby boy from Narayanpet district who died on April 18. The infant suffered from cerebral palsy.

Meanwhile, the death rate for males (17 out of the total 25) was more than double than that of females.

Health Minsiter Eatala Rajender said that the death toll also includes two people from Kalaburagi, Karnataka. “However, we accounted the two deaths in our State,” he said.