Ravaged by COVID, Ahmedabad faces spike in other deaths too

AHMEDABAD: large city badly hit by the coronavirus has recorded a sharp rise in deaths not attributed to the outbreak, according to official data and burial records, highlighting how the pandemic has affected general healthcare.

The spike in deaths in Ahmedabad, the most populous city in western Gujarat state, is due to patients with serious illnesses either not able to go to hospitals or being afraid to visit them because of the virus, doctors said.

The numbers contain “ominous signals” for the rest of the country, said Dr Rajib Dasgupta, a professor of community health at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

India has the world’s fourth biggest outbreak of the Covid-19 disease caused by the virus, with over 600,000 confirmed cases and 17,800 deaths, and some of its largest cities are still reeling from rising infections. Authorities say over 1,400 people have died because of the coronavirus so far in Ahmedabad, one of India’s worst-hit cities with more than 20,000 confirmed cases.

But the indirect death toll may be even higher. Twenty-four Hindu crematoriums and four of the largest Muslim graveyards in the city have reported 3,558 deaths in April and 7,150 deaths in May - a spike compared to 2,784 and 2,706 deaths reported by them in April and May last year, respectively.

State government data for Ahmedabad district, which includes the city limits, shows 839 deaths because of COVID-19 during April and May this year.

Jayanti Ravi, the health secretary of Gujarat state, however said she wasn’t aware of any significant rise in deaths in the city of more than 5.6 million people.

Dr Mona Desai, president of Ahmedabad Medical Association that represents over 9,000 doctors, said some of those who died may have been COVID positive. “But more fatalities were likely to have occurred because patients did not seek timely treatment fearing they might become infected by virus.”

Doctors also said closure of some private health facilities during a weeks-long lockdown that began in late March made it difficult for many patients to seek treatment.

Dasgupta, from Jawaharlal Nehru University, said: “Excess deaths during the COVID surge phase has been in evidence in other countries too on account of the inability to access medical care for other time-sensitive emergencies.”