As many as 1,372 Covid patients in home isolation in Himachal Pradesh have died for want of timely medical help or delay in their hospitalisation, raising serious questions over the entire healthcare system in the hill state.

This grim tally of deaths of Covid patients in home isolation accounts for about 49 per cent of the total coronavirus-linked fatalities in HP till 23 May, according to official figures.

A total of 1,81,256 persons have tested positive for Covid in HP so far, with 2,873 patients succumbing to the contagious, deadly viral disease till 25 May. HP chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said focus must be given on shifting serious Covid patients in home isolation to hospitals so that they could be provided timely treatment as 49 per cent patients in home isolation died due to delay in shifting the patients to hospitals.

“About 38 per cent deaths have been reported within 24 hours of admission in various hospitals. Similarly 7.7 per cent deaths have been reported in home isolation and 4.1 per cent patients were brought dead to hospitals,” he said.

He added that ASHA workers and other health workers must keep constant vigil on condition of patients in home isolation so that they could be shifted to the hospital if their condition worsen. A state health department official said as per the analysis of total deaths as on 23 May 2021 in the state, which was 2,752, it is observed that 213 patients died while in home isolation while 114 patients were brought dead in the hospitals indicating deaths in transit or at home.

Besides, 1,045 home isolated patients died within 24 hours of their hospitalisation in Covid care centres across the state.

“These results are indicative of a serious concern as they reflect that 49.8 per cent patients died due to delay in seeking medical help,” he added.

The highest number of deaths in home isolation or delay in shifting patients to hospitals was reported in Kangra district with 373 fatalities, followed by Shimla (230), Solan (127) and Una (99), he said. He urged the people to be extremely vigilant about the warning signs of Covid-19 disease as a timely medical intervention can save their lives.

“In case of home isolated Covid positive patients, the patients must be in regular communication with the treating physicians and keep monitoring their vitals. If the baseline oxygen saturation is less than 94 per cent or their SpO2 goes less than 94 per cent after a 6 minute walk test, the patient should immediately be transferred to the hospital for medical management to achieve good clinical outcomes and minimise mortality and morbidity,” he added.

Today, Himachal recorded 1,999 Covid cases — which took the number of total active cases to 23,073 — and 60 deaths, which pushed its Covid death toll to 2,873, while 1,57, 031 persons have recovered fromthe viral disease so far.

The worst affected districts in the second wave of Covid are Kangra with 6,832 active cases, followed by Shimla (26,06), Mandi (2,391), Solan (1,938), Sirmaur (1,756) and Hamirpur (1,663).