New Delhi: Nearly half of the Covid-19 deaths in Telangana have occurred in people without comorbidities, according to data with the state government.
In a 61-page long health bulletin issued Wednesday, one of the most detailed so far, the KCR-led government stated that 46.2 per cent of the Covid-19 deaths in the state were among those with comorbidities — higher than the national average of 43 per cent.
This is a significant development as there is belief that Covid-19 disproportionately affects those with comorbid conditions.
The Telangana data also shows that the most number of positive cases in the state is among men in the 31-40 year age category, while the least number of cases are in the category of 81 years and above.
About 65.6 per cent of the patients were male, of whom the maximum 17.7 per cent are in the 31-40 year category followed by 14 per cent in the 21-30 year age group.
Among the women, the maximum number of cases are in the 21-30 age group at 7.9 per cent.
In all, the state has, as of Wednesday, registered 58,906 cases and 492 deaths. The recovery rate is 74.3 per cent as opposed to the national rate of 64 per cent while case fatality rate is 0.84 per cent as against 2.26 per cent nationally.
Also read: How coronavirus is exposing the ‘autocratic’ leadership of ‘missing’ CM KCR
Data after high court intervention
The 61-page medical bulletin is a result of the Telangana High Court intervening and directing the state government to be more transparent.
The government, led by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (popularly known as KCR), has been accused of being opaque with Covid-19 data while also being criticised for low testing numbers.
The medical bulletin comes just a day after Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar along with senior government officials appeared in a virtual hearing of the Telangana High Court Tuesday and were given an ultimatum to provide critical data through print and electronic media.
The high court has on multiple occasions expressed displeasure over the state government’s failure to implement its orders on the Covid-19 outbreak and for misleading the public in media bulletins.
On 20 July, however, the court directed the state chief secretary and principal secretaries of the medical, health and municipal administration departments to appear before it on 28 July.
In the 20 July hearing, the court termed the contents of an earlier report submitted by the state as being “bald and vague”, and pulled up the government for allegedly fudging figures. The court also took a serious view of media bulletins mentioning that the “High Court appreciated the government’s efforts” and said that the government was misleading people.
“There is no respect for court orders. It appears that they are falling on deaf ears. The people are left to their fate,” the court remarked and termed the prevailing situation as “alarming”.
Following this, the state government released an 18-page long bulletin Monday, a 59-page long bulletin Tuesday and a 61-page one Wednesday.
Comprehensive data
In the wake of the court admonishment, the state government has put out what are now being viewed as the most detailed medical bulletins in the country. It’s Wednesday bulletin included the age, gender break up of cases, complete list of containment zones and vacant beds among other things.
It also provided details of the types of tests being conducted at 39 government and private laboratories besides list of centres for rapid antigen tests in each district.
A detailed breakup of regular beds, oxygen beds, ICU beds and the vacancies in each hospital are also part of the bulletin, in line with the high court orders.
According to the data, while 3,488 beds are vacant in private hospitals, another 12,460 beds are vacant in government hospitals.
The medical bulletin further highlighted that Telangana will also have a Corona mobile application — ‘Home isolation telemedicine and monitoring’ — which will prescribe medicines and advice to coronavirus patients.
Also read: In Telangana, KCR govt has 2 sets of Covid case numbers — the difference is nearly 3,000
The updated actual data of vacantbeds available in private hospitals and also govt with the list and names should be publised in the websight of ministry of health of tel govt every day at fixed time so that the private hospitals and govt hospitals cannot refuse the patients by saying no bed available
What is the point of detailed report when Ur fudging death and active cases numbers how can u even predict a forecast of virus spread when u don’t have a valid data . Local media reported that Gandhi hospital alone reports 30+ covid deaths that’s one single hospital but in health bullitein says 10 deaths in TELANGANA.Data transparency is a joke in TELANGANA .
The data given by the state government is of very contrast to the ground reality. Positive cases and deaths are massively underreported. Testing is very low. People are dying due to lack of beds in govt hospitals and private hospitals are not admitting positive patients. The data in the bulletin is completely fake. Central govt should intervene immediately and help people from COVID.
The data is false when we enquired about beds there is no vacant beds in many of the private hospitals. In govt hospital it’s a big question mark about the treatment.
Don’t know how to trust data of Telangana.
Corona count and study is always making false claims.
I m sure opening country and just putting positive news about corona can save thousands of life.
Corona has created fear in people’s mind.i am saying this bcz my family got it.so one way to save lives is to remove fear,stop publishing number just make testing easy.make it so easy that people take it just like maleria.
In India we had more death due to other deases but we never stopped living normal life.
Road accidents are killing more people than corona but we never stopped driving,we are saying we should be careful so let’s say same about corona let’s be careful.