84% of the deceased had co-morbidities: Minister

An audit of deaths by experts shows age is a factor

Of the 118 persons who died after testing positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, 84% had co-morbidities.

Among all co-morbidities, mortality was high among those with diabetes and hypertension, according to Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar.

Expert teams of doctors from general medicine, microbiology and community medicine have been conducting an audit of deaths in every district for the last three months. They found that 84% had co-morbidities and the remaining 16% did not have co-morbid conditions.

Fatality was high among persons who already had diabetes and hypertension and then contracted COVID-19. This raises the need to take medicines and keep blood sugar and blood pressure levels under control, he said.

“The audit showed that 50% of them were aged above 60. So age is also a risk factor,” he added. The State has formed committees, each catering to a co-morbid condition such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiac ailment, cancer and tuberculosis.

“We have formed expert committees for 11 such co-morbidities to provide targeted care for persons. This is why the State has been maintaining a low mortality rate. The Centre has asked us to make a presentation on the low mortality rate and share the protocol with other States,” he said.

An analysis of COVID-19 cases in the last three months showed that of the total number of patients, 88% were asymptomatic and 12% were symptomatic.

“Among the 12% with symptoms, 40% had fever, 37% had cough, 10% had sore throat, 9% had breathlessness and 4% had a runny nose,” he said.

He said that a committee had worked on projections of COVID-19 cases for the next three months to enable the State to equip itself. “The Chief Minister is meeting the panel of medical experts on Tuesday to get their views. Another committee has worked on a projection on the expected number of COVID-19 cases. This gives us the trend for the coming days so that we can prepare ourselves in terms of beds required, drugs and equipment needed, and measures to prevent mortality,” he said.