Late hospitalisation leading to high deaths, says Chhattisgarh minister Deo as Covid cases rise

TS Singh Deo says Modi govt should ramp up vaccine production and provide extra doses to the worst-hit states.

Chhattisgarh health minister T.S. Singh Deo | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint File photo

Raipur: As the second Covid wave sweeps the country, Chhattisgarh, which is among the five states that together contribute 65 per cent of the total active cases in the country, is seeing a shortage of hospital beds, including in the state’s capital Raipur.

According to Chhattisgarh government data, in the last one month, there has been over 17 times rise in deaths in Chhattisgarh, with daily deaths rising from 8 on 16 March to 138 on 16 April. In April alone, the death toll has seen a five-fold increase — from 25 deaths on 1 April to 138 on 16 April.

As Chhattisgarh’s Covid numbers paint a grim picture, state health minister T.S. Singh Deo says the death rate is high due to delayed hospitalisation. “30 per cent deaths are being reported within 24 hours of hospitalisation and another 10 per cent within 72 hours,” Deo told ThePrint.

“This is a continuing phenomenon. People like the comfort of home isolation and feel it’s better than hospitals. Where they miss out in this is if oxygen levels fall, it falls rapidly and this delay in reporting to hospitals proves fatal. 30 per cent deaths have been reported within 24 hours of reporting to the hospital and another 10 per cent within 72 hours of reporting to the hospital. This is certainly because of reporting late to the hospital,” he said.

“All doctors are of the view that this is a different mutant that is not the same in the first wave. Youth and children are affected this time who weren’t affected last time. Mortality in age group below 45 is 25 per cent now.”

Deo denied that there has been a communication failure on the part of the government in informing the public about the fatality of the disease. “There has been no information failure in telling people the severity of the disease. Government agencies, media have tried to communicate repeatedly that don’t take it lightly. But the problem is many cases are asymptomatic. So the sense is there’s not much to worry about. Maybe there was a complacency in public perception that it’s not really harmful to life,” he said.

‘Laxity in hindsight’

The Chhattisgarh government has also drawn flak for its green signal to the Road Safety World Series — a cricket series, including batting legends Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, held in March.

On being asked whether there has been a laxity on the part of the government since it decided to organise the cricket match during the pandemic, the minister said there may have been some laxity by the government in hindsight, but it’s difficult to say if the tournament contributed to a rise in cases.

“Difficult to say if a cricket match contributed to the spike. At the time positivity rate was below 1, so the sense was among people and the government that cases are falling. And if we are able to organise the event in a particular way it would lift spirits. But the surge has come with the tournament and some of the players too have got infected. So it has happened parallely,” he said.

However, he added that the cricket matches cannot be blamed alone. “We are having Kumbh and election rallies and other religious events where lakhs are gathering. These events hold the potential to become super spreader events, no doubt about that. But if you see just the cricket match-then one must see, there was no cricket match in Delhi or Maharashtra or Uttar Pradesh. Cases are surging there also. But certainly in hindsight we can say there was a laxity and nobody was anticipating this even though we had said be prepared for a second wave,” he said.

Shortage of ICU beds

Deo admitted that there is a shortage of ICU beds in the state which is adding to the crisis. “The major shortage is in ICU beds and we have very little scope to do something immediately. The crisis is also because of patients wanting to go to particular hospitals whether it is AIIMS in Raipur or the BRAM Hospital. Half the state’s ICU beds are in just one city i.e. Raipur. That is the big problem and we are trying to get sanction for 1000 more ICU beds. But we are 20-30 days behind what is required today,” he said.

While the state is not facing an oxygen shortage yet, it is dealing with a shortage of jumbo cylinders. “We are among the highest producers of liquid oxygen. We have oxygen generating plants in hospitals which is coming handy. The crunch is in jumbo cylinders of oxygen and even the units are not being able to supply fresh cylinders. The crunch is in supply pipeline whether it is in jumbo cylinders or in the vaccines,” he said.

‘Centre needs to ramp up vaccine production’

Amid the spiralling cases, the state government has been locked in a war of words with the Centre over vaccinations. Deo said the need of the hour is to keep politics aside and for the Centre to ramp up vaccine production.

“We should say that we are not being able to produce enough and we are ramping up production,” he said. “I never said that there is a shortage of vaccines being supplied to Chhattisgarh by the Centre. I am only saying that there should be a plan of giving vaccines to those states that need it. Do that equally according to the population and give a little extra to those states who are hit heavily,” he added.

He also said that the Centre should come clean on the limited vaccine production capacity. “The fact is we have a limited production capacity and what is being produced is being pushed through the supply pipeline by the Centre. But they can only give what is available so what we should be discussing is how to ramp up production of vaccines in the country,” he added.