Karnataka: 12,000 active Covid-19 patients in high-risk category

BENGALURU: As the state strives to reduce the Covid-19 mortality rate and bring it under 1%, the focus is on treating high-risk patients.

As of Saturday night, at least 11% of all patients in the state had influenza like illness (ILI) or severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), according to the state covid war room data. Another 12% of the patients were aged more than 60, which is also a high-risk category.

While 16,267 patients as on Saturday had ILI, 3,346 had SARI and over 20,000 were aged above 60. As per the state government, in the 24-hour period ending Saturday, the fatality rate among high-risk patients was 7.1% while the overall rate was only 1.9%.

There were 12,317 active patients who fall in the high-risk category, which was likely to change as of Sunday. Public health experts like Dr MK Sudharshan, Dr Giridhar Babu and others have been stressing the need to strategise on treatment of acute cases and early admission of ILI/SARI patients so as to manage their health.

“In the most ideal situation, the mortality rate must be 1% or less. While testing more and identifying as many patients is key, we must also focus on appropriate treatment protocols for high-risk patients and ensure that they are admitted to hospital early,” Dr CN Manjunath, member, Karnataka Covid-19 task force had earlier told TOI.

Babu pointed out that the state must also focus on patients with other comorbidities such as diabetes and hypertension among others. As of August 6, 44% of patients had diabetes and 23% had hypertension, while 28% had hypertension along with other ailments.