LUCKNOW: The 11-day door-to-door screening exercise undertaken across six districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Noida and Ghaziabad of NCR, has revealed that around 12 lakh people fall in the category of ‘vulnerable to COVID-19’ owing to their co-morbidities. The campaign in the division ended on July 12.
According to Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Health, Amit Mohan Prasad, as many as 11.75 lakh persons of the division were found to be suffering from at least one co-morbid medical condition during the exercise carried out between July 2 and 12.
The campaign was launched with the intent to identify vulnerable people including those suffering from cancer, renal disease, diabetes, TB, liver ailments, elderly, pregnant women and children below 10 years of age. Currently, the same exercise is underway in the remaining 17 divisions across the state.
As per the ACS, five lakh teams had covered 2,51,94,708 crore households during the campaign. “The health teams reached out to 12,94,35,139 persons of whom 11,75,975 (about 1% of the total population) accounted for at least one comorbid condition,” he said.
In the vulnerable category, the majority of cases were of diabetes followed by those suffering from hypertension. “While over 8 lakh people were affected by diabetes, 2,38,238 were being treated for hypertension,” said Prasad.
The list also included 54,247 cardiac patients, 16,879 persons suffering from renal ailments and 18018 cancer patients. The health teams also gathered data on influenza-like illness, severe acute respiratory illness and those with any other lung disease. The data under these heads are being computed.
Besides, Noida and Ghaziabad, the other four districts covered under the drive included Meerut, Bulandshahr, Hapur and Baghpat. The six districts of Meerut division make for about 27 per cent of the total COVID burden of the state and around 25 per cent of total COVID related deaths in the state.
As per the health authorities, of those who died in the state so far, over 70 per cent had one or more co-morbid condition. Though a formal audit of COVID casualty data is still underway, diabetes has emerged as the major risk factor.