CHENNAI: As Tamil Nadu witnessed a spike of 805 COVID-19 cases on Monday and seven more deaths, the Government has released an analysis which says that out of the 118 people who have died, 99 (84 per cent) had comorbidity while 19 (16 per cent) did not have any conditions. Total cases in the State stands at 17,082.
Addressing reporters through video conferencing, Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar said that diabetes and hypertension were the most present comorbid conditions leading to deaths. "We can call them exclusive Covid deaths or incidental covid deaths,'' he said.
The study said that 55 (46.5 per cent) people who died were above 60 years while another 55 were between 41 to 60. Only eight (seven per cent) were between 21 to 40. In this, 69 per cent were male.
On Monday, out of the seven who died, a 33-year-old who died at the Government Royapettah Hospital did not have any conditions.
Also, COVID-19 test samples of Justice V Ratnam (87), former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh who died on May 23 at his Mylapore residence, came back positive on Monday.
Meanwhile the analysis done over three months highlights that 88 per cent of patients are asymptomatic.
According to the analysis, out of the 12 per cent people who are symptomatic, 40 per cent of them presented fever symptoms, 37 per cent had cough, ten had throat pain, nine had breathlessness.
The Health Minister said that the death audit team consisting experts from general medicine, microbiology and community medicine studied the cases across all districts.
"The analysis matches the scientific understanding that Covid 19 affects the elderly, comorbid and vulnerable population,'' he said. The health minister also said that a projection committee is working on analyzing the cases trend for the next three months to help the State be prepared with adequate beds, drugs and equipment.
'There are adequate testing kits'
Meanwhile, across 68 testing labs, the State has tested 11,428 people on Monday taking the total tests to 4.02 lakhs. The government has said that there are adequate testing kits for the next one month.
"Two lakh kits have been currently distributed to various hospitals while we have 1.7 lakh kits with us. This would be adequate for a month,'' Dr P Umanath MD of TN medical service corporation told Express.
Dr Umanath said that the key challenge is the storage of these kits as they have to be stored at minus 20 degrees celsius. "We have ordered 15.7 lakhs in total so far and supplies are coming on a weekly basis. We phase the supply as per usage,'' he said.
The Health Minister meanwhile advises people with comorbidity to take their tablets regularly.
'Domestic air-travel new challenge'
The minister said domestic air travel will be the primary challenge for the State. He said that the government has restricted arrival flights to 25 while there is no restriction on departure flights.
"11 flights have arrived so far with 486 people. All of them are thoroughly screened and quarantined. We punch a blue stamp on the hands of returnees to indicate 14 day quarantine period,'' he said.
On Monday, 87 people tested positive were from Maharashtra while three from Gujarat, 2 from Kerala and one from Andhra Pradesh. "Delhi trains, passenger flights and even air-force flights too had positive cases coming in,'' said the minister.
Till May 25, 2055 people were tested at the Chennai Airport where 2014 turned negative. In the Tiruchi airport, 2239 were tested and 2198 turned negative.