Mortality among youth, middle-aged people a cause of concern: Karnataka health minister

Amid a spike in coronavirus cases, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Tuesday expressed concern at that mortality among the youth and middle-aged people due to COVID-19.

"The deaths yesterday included youths of age 25, also 35 and 40 year-olds. This has caused concern. So I have asked the technical advisory committee and a panel of expert doctors for a death audit to be done to know the exact reason for deaths," Sudhakar told reporters.

More than 1 lakh cases have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours, and the mortality rate is also increasing. In the state also it was up with 32 deaths yesterday," he added.

He also said the second wave of the pandemic was spreading faster than the first wave. "We cannot predict the severity of the situation right now, but we are prepared for it," said the Minister.

A total of 33,697 beds have been reserved under the government's facility for Covid patients in the state.Besides, 15,733 oxygenated beds were available in government hospitals out of which 10,083 beds have been reserved for COVID cases, he said.

"We have also directed the private hospitals to increase COVID reserved beds to 20 per cent. We need to increase the number if more cases are detected, people have to be cautious in this situation," he further added. The minister appealed to people to be cautious and follow the COVID protocol.

On vaccination, Sudhakar said, Karnataka was in the sixth position in the country with over 48 lakh people receiving the jab. Already 48.05 lakh people have been vaccinated till yesterday and 1,95,554 people have got the jab in the last 24 hours, he said. Over 22.5 lakh people who received vaccination were above 60 and 10.4 lakh people between 45-59 age group.

The minister further said it was not true that one will become completely immunised from the virus infection once he/she is vaccinated. However, severity of infection will be less in those who have received the shot.

On requests from the film industry to remove the 50 per cent occupancy restriction in cinema halls from April 7 and allow 100 per cent seating, Sudhakar said the matter will be discussed with the Chief Minister who will take a decision.

Noting that Maharashtra has announced strict measures including weekend lockdown, he said. "We should not push ourselves to a similar situation in our state. People should cooperate in this regard," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )