‘High co-morbidities, low trust in govt facilities behind surge in deaths’

Aspiraling Covid death rate in Punjab – now ranked the third highest after Maharashtra and Gujarat and higher than the national average – has put a question mark on the state health authorities’ approach to dealing with the crisis. Things turned grimmer on Wednesday as the daily fatalities crossed the 100 mark for the first time since the pandemic outbreak. HT spoke to Dr K K Talwar, head of the state’s expert group on Covid-19 on Thursday. Edited excerpts:

Why Punjab is failing to control the case fatality rate (CFR)?

A high death rate is a big concern for us but there are mainly two reasons for this. First, Punjab has a high prevalence of co-morbid diseases, such as diabetes, blood pressure and hypertension. The second is the late reporting by the Covid patients. People are shying away from getting tested for Covid-19. By the time those sickened by Coronavirus come to Covid health centres, their condition worsens and it becomes very difficult to manage things.

Is Punjab the only state where people are hesitant to get themselves tested?

The other states must also have been facing the same problem. But, frankly speaking, there is a lack of trust among the general public in getting the treatment in the government facilities. In Punjab, since long, people have been preferring going to private hospitals. Contrast this with Kerala where the Covid caseload is high, but health infrastructure has been developed in such a way that people first prefer visiting government hospitals. In addition, widespread rumours on social media on testing and quality of treatment at the government hospitals have also creating confusion and fear among the people. So, people hide and lie about their health status even when the Covid symptoms are visible.

What is lacking in Punjab’s Covid strategy?

The government has provided us in real time everything we asked for. Still, there have been some shortcomings. Mainly, we faulted in contact tracing in July which we now have improved. Also, there have been some problems on the management of containment zones.

Does Punjab need to shift the strategy in the wake of rising death rate?

We have already eased out norms for the home isolation. Many more private sector hospitals have been roped in. The biggest challenge is to ensure that people come out for testing at the start of symptoms. For this, we are trying for a greater community participation. A pilot project has been started in Khanna. We desperately need cooperation in adhering to social distancing and wearing masks.

When do you expect Punjab to reach the Covid peak?

It is very difficult to predict anything about this pandemic as even the medical fraternity is perplexed about the behaviour of the virus. But, in some urban areas, we may witness peak in the coming two weeks. In Ludhiana, we have seen a downturn in cases as compared to the last week. Same goes for Amritsar. We have been conducting around 25,000 tests daily, but the positive cases in the last few days have remained constant at nearly 1,500.

A high death rate is a big concern for us but there are mainly two reasons for this — more comorbid people and people not ready to going for tests KK TALWAR, head of expert group on Covid-19 in Punjab