More than one in every six Covid-related deaths in Meghalaya this month have been of people who were brought to hospital only when it was too late to save their lives, the government has noted.
This month there were 341 deaths attributed to the disease in the state up to May 26. Of these 60 (17.59 percent) were of people brought dead to hospital, Principal Secretary of the Health Department, Sampath Kumar, said in an advisory yesterday. This insight was discussed at a meeting of the state medical experts committee.
The high proportion of deaths at home is “primarily due to the symptomatic cases that opted to stay home and delayed seeking medical treatment,” Kumar said.
Therefore, the public needs to be educated on the Covid-19 warning signs, especially around the eighth day after symptoms emerge. These include sudden onset or increase of fatigue or weakness, sudden worsening or recurrence of earlier symptoms, new symptoms, increase or recurrence of fever, increased cough, chest pain and/or onset or increase of breathing difficulty. This could be due to hypersensitivity or hyperinflation caused by the disease. In such cases a doctor or local medical officer should be contacted immediately and medical treatment should be stepped up.
Administering medicines at the right time will reduce the chances of the need for hospitalisation, oxygen support and, ultimately, fatalities Kumar added.
