SHILLONG, July 25: Concerned over the high COVID mortality rate in the state, an emergency meeting of the Committee for COVID Death Audit (CCDA), comprising health experts, was held on Friday to analyse the COVID deaths in the past one week. The Committee and came up with several action plans for immediate implementation.
The analyses revealed that 95% of deaths were because of delayed presentation where patients were tested only at the hospital. Out of the total number of COVID deaths in the last one week, 97% were of those who were not vaccinated. This delay in seeking health care is becoming a challenge in tackling the fatality numbers.
The survey also found that in rural areas people tend to look for alternative medicines or visit informal practitioners and are admitted to hospitals only at a later stage when it becomes too late for treatment. Hence the Committee recommends that people who find themselves symptomatic or even test positive may be allowed to go to hospitals themselves without waiting for ambulances to ferry them. This, the Committee feels, would help in simplifying the process and de-stigmatize those who test positive and urge them to seek early treatment in whichever way they find convenient. They could report to the nearest PHC/CHC or a hospital of their choice. The important thing is to treat COVID like any other disease and to make the health-seeking behaviour for COVID as simple as possible. Speaking to this correspondent, Principal Secretary Health, Sampath Kumar said, “At this juncture it is important to drive away the fears and apprehensions from the minds of people. This is also the only way to counter the barrage of unwarranted misinformation being circulated around.”
Another important finding of the Committee is that the elderly have inhibitions about being tested as they fear they may test COVID positive, get admitted in hospitals and die alone there without any dignity and the rituals of burial followed in the community. The Committee recognises that these are sensitive cultural practices in tribal societies like Meghalaya where the dead are given decent burials with close friends and family in attendance.
In deference to such cultural observances the Committee will hold emergency meetings with the headmen/community leaders to allow the bodies of COVID victims to be taken home, after the formalities are completed in the hospitals and then be given a dignified burial in consonance with the protocols issued by the respective DCs regarding the number of people to be present at the site.
The Committee also assured that the burial assistants need not wear full PPEs at the sites, as long as they were properly masked and observed social distancing. In the course of the deliberations the Committee found that Mission hospitals and some private hospitals are complying with the request of the relatives of the COVID victims and giving them due respect and dignity.
“Empathy and a humane response is important to win the confidence of people at this juncture. Such acts of empathy, sympathy and kindness would help to dispel fears amongst the sick and change their attitudes of avoiding hospitals to seek medical help at the right time. A simple message should also be communicated that anyone with cold/flu like symptoms lasting more than 5 days should immediately seek medical help at the nearest PHC/CHC or the nearest hospital,” the Committee remarked.
The CCDA further exhorts people in remote villages to seek the help of the ASHAs who would facilitate urgent medical help in consultation with the medical officers concerned. They suggest that the messages and action points being taken up should be widely circulated in the vernacular languages, to ensure that such information percolates to the last person in every locality, Blocks and villages.
Considering the urgency of the situation and the rise in the fatality rates due to social inhibitions and vaccine hesitancy the CCDA suggests that immediate action be taken on the points listed out. Their target is to reduce the fatality rates and simplify the process to encourage people to seek early treatment and beat the COVID wave.