Chandigarh, April 27:
Stressing upon the need of early diagnosis as well as treatment of COVID-19 patients, Health Minister Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu today appealed to people even with mild symptoms visit healthcare facility immediately before converting mild infection of COVID-19 into a deadly disease. He said that as per record, 1,85,000 COVID-19 patients have been recovered in home isolation following the guidelines and simple treatment recommended by health experts.
Mr. Sidhu said that 58 percent COVID deaths have been registered in rural populations of Punjab from 1st January 2021 to 12th April 2021 against the 27 percent positive cases reported. He said that 73 percent positive cases and 42 percent COVID deaths reported in urban populations.
Health Minister said that it is a matter of serious concern that the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of the rural population is 2.8 against the 0.7 of urban population. He said that at present CFR of Punjab is 2.02 and 82.5 percent of deaths have been recorded from population those are above 51 years of age.
Expressing grave concern over COVID-19 patients visiting the health facilities at later stage, Mr. Sidhu divulged that severity of symptoms at the time of visiting the first health facility is very high. He said that as per record, 83.92 percent of patients have visited the hospitals first time with severe symptoms, 0.11 percent visited with moderate symptoms and only 7 percent of patients have visited with mild symptoms from 1 January to 12 April.
Giving further details, he said that single death was registered of COVID-19 patient between age group of 0 to 14 years during this time while 17.5 percent COVID deaths have been recorded of population between the age of 15 to 50 years.
Pointing out the risk factors of population who are suffering from co-morbidities, the Minister said that patients of hypertension and diabetes are advised to strictly follow the COVID-19 appropriate behavior as their lives are at high risk if they got the infection of coronavirus.
