TIRUCHI
Doctors in the region have cited the increasing number of deaths and advised people to stay home and follow COVID-19 protocol.
In Tiruchi, doctors say that the number of deaths has markedly increased due to the ignorance of symptoms.
"We have seen some patients come to us with oxygen levels falling below 85. A patient ideally needs to be admitted if it is below 92," a senior doctor at the Tiruchi Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital said.
The patients ignore the cold, breathlessness, attribute it to their pre-existing ailments and rush to the hospital when it is too late, he said.
Meanwhile, another senior doctor at the Thanjavur Medical College Hospital alleged that the number of deaths was being undercounted by authorities.
Patients who tested negative for COVID-19 but had severe lung infection were not counted as COVID-19 patients. These patients are admitted to a separate ward, called the Severe Acute Respiratory Illnesses (SARI) ward, and given the same treatment as a COVID patient, the doctor alleged.
"On any given day, the number of deaths at the SARI ward is at least double the number of deaths at the COVID-19 ward," the doctor said.
The authorities need to accept that there is a community spread and begin to work on a protocol to control it, the doctor said.
Further, researchers must work on genomic sequencing to understand the potency of the virus, he said. "Last year, we reported deaths in patients over the age of 60, this year, I have had cases where patients as young as 28 succumbed to the viral infection," he said.
