COVID-19: 60% deaths in third wave among partially or completely unvaccinated, says study

Image credit: ANI

New Delhi: A study by a private hospital has said that 60 per cent of the patients who died during the current wave of COVID-19 pandemic were either partially or fully unvaccinated.

The study by Max Healthcare said the deaths reported were largely among those aged over 70 and those suffering from multiple co-morbidities such as kidney diseases, heart diseases, diabetes, cancers etc.

"In our hospitals, out of 82 deaths so far, 60 per cent was seen in the partially or unvaccinated population," it said in a statement.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has also been stressing that the fatalities are occurring among those patients who are immunocompromised and have co-morbidities.

The comparative study of the three waves of the pandemic also said that only 23.4 per cent of the patients required oxygen support during the third wave of the pandemic, as against 74 per cent during the second wave and 63 per cent during the first wave.

Across the network of hospitals, there have been 41 admissions of minors. "However, no deaths have been reported in this age-group. Seven required paediatric ICU while two were on ventilators," it said.

The hospital said that when Delhi had logged 28,000 cases during the second wave in April, all hospital beds were occupied with zero ICU beds available, while during this wave when a higher number of cases was reported last week, there was no crisis of availability of hospital beds.

The hospital admissions to the facility during the first, second and third waves stand at 20,883, 12,444 and 1378 respectively, said the report.

ICU admissions stood at 45.9 per cent during the third wave as opposed to 34 per cent and 35 per cent in the second and first wave.

"One must note that this sample is biased as Max Healthcare caters to tertiary and quaternary care and we receive a significant number of critical patients referred to us. Hence there is always a disproportionately higher ICU demand," the hospital said. The overall mortality in the first wave was 7.2 per cent which increased to 10.5 per cent during the second wave.

The hospital chain has recorded six per cent mortality in COVID 19 patients during the ongoing wave.

"Although the number of patients getting admitted is fast rising over the past 10 days and more and more daily deaths are being reported, the good news is that variant Omicron seems to be causing a much milder disease," it said.

It said lesser number of people needing hospitalisation and administering of oxygen is due to vaccination. The hospital chain carried out the study covering third wave from its beginning till Jan 20 2022. The study was conducted under Dr Sandeep Buddhiraja, Group Medical Director, Max Healthcare.

The study included samples from across Max Healthcare hospitals and compared rate of admission, ICU requirement, mortality, etc among COVID-19 patients across the three waves of the pandemic, said the hospital chain.

Delhi logged 10,756 fresh COVID cases and 38 more fatalities due to the infection on Friday, while the positivity rate declined to 18.04 per cent.

It had recorded 28,867 COVID cases last Thursday, the sharpest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. The numbers have since seen a decline.