COVID-19: Visit healthcare facility immediately even with mild symptoms, says Punjab Health Minister

Stressing upon the need for early diagnosis as well as treatment of coronavirus, Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Tuesday appealed to people to visit the healthcare facility immediately even with mild symptoms 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. Sidhu said that 58 per cent of COVID-19 deaths have been registered in rural populations of Punjab from January 1, 2021, to April 12 2021 against the 27 per cent positive cases reported.

He said that 73 per cent positive cases and 42 per cent COVID deaths reported in urban populations.

The Health Minister said that it is a matter of serious concern that the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of the rural population is 2.8 per cent against the 0.7 per cent of the urban population.

He said that at present CFR of Punjab is 2.02 and 82.5 per cent of deaths have been recorded from a population that is above 51 years of age.

Expressing grave concern over COVID-19 patients visiting the health facilities at a later stage, 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 per cent of patients have visited the hospitals first time with severe symptoms, 0.11 per cent visited with moderate symptoms and only 7 per cent of patients have visited with mild symptoms from January 1 to April 12.Giving further details, he said that single death was registered of COVID-19 patients between the age group of 0 to 14 years during this time while 17.5 per cent COVID deaths have been recorded of the population between the age of 15 to 50 years.

Pointing out the risk factors of the population who are suffering from co-morbidities, the minister said that patients with hypertension and diabetes are advised to strictly follow the COVID-19 appropriate behaviour as their lives are at high risk if they got the infection of coronavirus.

( With inputs from ANI )