Jamal Ayub | TNN | Updated: May 12, 2020, 06:12 IST

BHOPAL: Thirty per cent of all Covid-19 deaths in Madhya Pradesh took place on the day of hospitalisation, according to a health department report. In Bhopal, 61% of people admitted for Covid-19 treatment died on the same day. In Indore, while only 13% died on the same day, 56% died in the first five days. In Ujjain, 94% people died in the first five days of admission for Covid-19 treatment.


More than 70% of Covid-19 deaths occurred in the first five days of the presentation of case, according to the analysis of 185 Covid-19 deaths that have taken place in Madhya Pradesh till the first week of May. Most of these cases that underwent treatment were out of ‘containment zones’. Late presentation of cases is linked to the time interval between the onset of symptoms and date of admission to hospital. Other factors were the level of care at the hospital and pre-existing conditions of the patients. “Patients go into immune reaction, which is not unique to Covid-19, called cytokine storm. It can arise in response to other infections and can be deadly and occur in severely ill Covid19 patients,” said Gandhi Medical College (GMC) pulmonologist, Dr Parag Sharma.


Of the cases analysed, 31% of deaths were on the day of admission, 13.74% died on the first day, 12.64% died on the second day and 11% died on the third day in hospital. The percentage of survival increases with a week of hospitalisation.


The state government document remarks that the period, ‘between onset of symptoms and admission to hospital is decreasing. At the beginning of outbreak, it was high at 12 days and in the last two weeks, it is around 3-4 days. This indicates that now people are recognising symptoms and reaching the hospital in time’.


“There is need for transparency and to immediately conduct a death review. The situation also calls for reviewing the identification isolation, treatment and testing (IITT) strategy to counter Covid-19 spread,” said NGO Jan Swasth Abhiyan representative, Amulya Nidhi. He also stated that the current situation is a fallout of the U-turn on decentralised policy (proposed in March) against a now centralised policy to counter Covid-19.


One-fifth of the Covid-19 deaths in MP are of people who were aged 41 to 50. About 58% of people who died due to Covid19 were in the age group of 51 to 70. Those between 71 to 80 were 12% of all Covid19 deaths reported. However, risk of death rises sharply from 50 years onwards and is 3.4 times in age 60-70 years, 4.3 times in 70-80 years and 5.4 times in those over 80 years.


Date-wise case fatality rate, a percentage of confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths, was at a peak at 8.14% on April 13. It dropped to 4.48% around April 23. However, in an alarming sign, the number of deaths per case reported has once again shot up to 5.90%. A week into hospitalisation, recovery from Covid-19 is more likely than earlier in admission. 44% of the deaths were in Indore, 22% in Ujjain and 11% in Bhopal