COVID-19 situation might get critical from October onwards, says Himanta Biswa Sarma

Sept. 10: Covid-19 has assumed a much serious turn in Assam.18 persons, the one-day highest so far, have died in the state on Wednesday due to COVID-19. State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has also expressed serious concern on the death of 18 persons in a single day.

“Gradually, the most fearsome face of COVID-19 has come to surface. Previously, people in the state have criticised us and often said many people usually die due to other diseases. But now they have realised the seriousness of this fatal disease. People now need to be more cautious and observe all Covid protocols,” said the minister. He also informed that around 51 metric ton of oxygen is consumed by the patients daily.

Himanta Biswa Sarma further said, “The Covid deaths which I inform through social media daily is a technical one. Even some negative persons after turning negative goes back to his home and due to lungs infection and breathlessness dies. So technically speaking, the patient is Covid negative, but we know that the person died of Covid. Statistics is a totally different thing. For example, a patient admitted at medical college is put under oxygen in ICU. But his test report comes out to be negative. He/she was admitted 7 days later and so he was found negative in the test, but the infection within him/her continues. The virus report becomes negative but the viral infection remains. The death figure registered by the state is purely a technical figure, but in non-technical terms, the number of deaths is much more high.”

The minister candidly expressed that, “Everything has got a limit. There is a threshold of each and every aspect. As for instance, it is not possible to add beds inside an existing ICU. So I think that,if the Covid situation goes on unaltered till December, then the limit would get exceeded. At that moment, it will be somewhat similar to an accident case where 10 got injured, out of which 2 could be accommodated in ICU who are saved and the rest 8 due to lack of ICU failed to survive. That means, the more prolonged is the Covid situation, the number of deaths will be more. Everyday, on an average, 2500 persons are tested positive. If say, for instance, this number does not rise, then also in every month we would have 75,000 patients. Now, if it increases by even 200 in every month, then in October, it will be 2,800 and in November, it will be 3000. In Assam, the doubling takes place in 30 days. So now, if the monthly total is 1,30,000, it will be double in October. ”

The minister further said that there is nothing much to worry about in the month of September. However, he said that if Durga Puja festival is celebrated like previous years, then the number of positive cases might increase drastically in the month of October. So he urged upon all to be extra cautious especially during the forthcoming Durga Puja and observe only the religious rituals putting aside all other associated arrangements which usually takes place during the puja.