Tamil Nadu: Covid deaths come down; vaccination picks up pace

The latest COVID bulletin has shown that the number of deaths daily in Tamil Nadu has come down from 400 to 300. An analysis since March 1 this year indicates that maximum deaths happened in the state between May 15 and June 1, a rise of 42%.

So far, 28,528 people died in Tamil Nadu from April last year to June 10 this year. About 7,363 people succumbed to COVID between May 15 and June 1 this year, the highest so far.

In August last year 3,387 persons died, the previous highest so far. The fatality rate, which was 1.43 on April 1, came down to 1.19 on May 1 and on May 29, it was 1.14.

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“Usually, there will be a delay in the number of deaths after fresh cases start to decline. The delay or lag period is 2 to 3 weeks and we hope the deaths also will also decline in the coming weeks,” said Dr Sumanth Raman, a physician, and an expert.

He said it usually takes on an average 14-15 days for deaths to occur after infection. “Some districts like Coimbatore have more fresh cases, the death rate will not decline immediately and we can only hope to see fewer deaths in the second week of June,” he said.

According to Raman, vaccination is the best medicine to make the Covid curve flatten.

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“Unlike the early days when only a few came forward to take the jab, now people are interested in getting vaccinated. But there is an acute shortage of vaccines which could affect the speedy return of normalcy,” said a senior health department official, who sought anonymity.

He said in the last two days, Tamil Nadu received a few lakh doses of Covishield as well as Covaxin. “We expect to vaccinate more people with the new stock but unless the Centre sends us enough stock, vaccination will not increase,” said the official.