Coronavirus: 75% of India's deaths in patients aged over 60
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday said that 75% of all coronavirus-related deaths in India involved patients over the age of 60. The Ministry also noted that 83% of the deaths were also cases involving co-morbidities. India's mortality rate is 3.3% and till Saturday morning, India had reported 480 deaths due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Here are more details.
991 new COVID-19 cases, 43 new deaths
Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said that India reported 991 new COVID-19 cases and 43 new deaths in the past 24 hours. He said 1,992 patients (13.85% of all cases) have also recovered from the disease. On Friday, Agarwal had said that the ratio of COVID-19 recoveries to deaths is 4:1 in India. India reported a total of 14,378 cases till Saturday morning.
India reports 14,792 cases, 488 deaths: Latest update
As per the Health Ministry's latest update, by 5 pm on Saturday, India had reported 14,792 cases of COVID-19. These included 488 deaths and 12,289 active cases, along with 2,014 patients who were cured/discharged and one patient who migrated out of India.
75% who died aged over 60; 83% had co-morbidities
Speaking during the daily press briefing, Agarwal also said that of all the deaths in India, 14.4% cases involved patients aged 0-45 years, 10.3% were those aged 45-60 years, 33.1% were those aged 60-75 years, and 42.2% deaths were people above the age of 75. Agarwal said that 83% of the deaths also involved cases with co-morbidities.
2 districts haven't reported any new cases in 28 days
Apart from Puducherry's Mahe, Karnataka's Kodagu district has also not reported any new COVID-19 cases in over 28 days, Agarwal said. Meanwhile, 45 districts in 23 states have not reported any new cases in over 14 days. However, three districts—where no new positive cases were reported for 14 days earlier—have now detected new cases. These include Bihar's Patna, West Bengal's Nadia and Haryana's Panipat.
Additional districts that haven't reported new cases in 14 days:
Andhra Pradesh's Vishakhapatnam; Arunachal Pradesh's Lohit; Assam's Karimganj, Golaghat, Kamrup Rural, Nalbari, and South Salmara-Mankachar; Bihar's Bhagalpur, Gopalganj, and Lakhisarai; Haryana's Rohtak and Charkhi Dadri; J&K's Pulwama; Karnataka's Chitradurga; Manipur's Thoubal; Odisha's Bhadrak and Puri; Punjab's Hoshiarpur; Rajasthan's Udaipur and Dholpur; and West Bengal's Jalpaiguri.
Over 4,000 cases in India linked to Tablighi Jamaat event
The Health Ministry also said that 4,291 cases (29.8% of total cases) are linked to a congregation of the Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat in mid-March. Cases linked to the congregation have been found in 23 states and Union Territories. 84% of cases in Tamil Nadu are linked to the event, followed by Telangana (79%), Delhi (63%), Andhra Pradesh (61%), and Uttar Pradesh (59%).
Studies being conducted to test efficacy of HCQ
The Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at ICMR, Dr. Raman R Gangakhedkar, said that a cohort study on Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is being carried out in India. The eight-week study involves 480 patients. Gangakhedkar informed of another ongoing study of healthcare workers taking HCQ. Thus far, 10% of participants have reported experiencing abdominal pain as a side-effect, 6% experienced nausea, and 1.3% experienced hypoglycemia.
AIIMS also conducting 2 studies on HCQ
Dr. Gangakhedkar also said that Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is conducting two studies on HCQ testing its efficacy as a prophylactic and as a therapeutic treatment. He said that the US-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences is testing the efficacy of the antiviral drug Remdesivir on 5,500 patients. It was previously used for Ebola treatment.
