Alarmed by increase in death rate in US, the government steps up preparations to tackle possible third wave

Bhopal: Alarmed by the USí death rate during the third wave of Covid-19 over there as discussed in a meeting of the health department the state government has stepped up its activities to tackle the possible third wave here expected in the coming months, as per officials of the health department.

A presentation titled ëMadhya Pradesh 3rd wave-projections and preparednessí was done in the helth departmentís meeting a couple of days back based on the third wave scenario in the UK (United Kingdom) and the US (United States) both, the two countries which have carried out vaccination of its citizens extensively.

What alarmed the officials in the meeting that whereas the death rate in the UK drastically came down during the third wave as compared to the second wave the death rate went up alarmingly in the US.

In the UK, the daily new cases during the 2nd wave as was observed on January 10, 2021 stood at 59810 which came down to 34956 during the third wave as was observed on July 14, 2021. Similarly, the number of deaths came down from 567 per day to 50 per day.

In terms of percentage while there were 0.9% deaths every 100 daily new cases during the second wave the death rate came down to merely 0.1 per 100 daily new cases during the third wave.

The number of hospitalized patients too drastically came down from 59.1% to 10.8%. The percentage of ICU patients fell to 1.5% from 5.4%.

In the United States the number of daily cases too drastically came down from 2.38 lakh during the second wave as on January 11, 2021 to merely 15054 during the third wave as recorded on July 10, 2021.

The number of daily deaths too came down from 3301 to 260 but in terms of percentage the daily deaths were registered at 1.7% per 100 new daily cases during the third wave as compared to 1.4% during the second wave.

ìThe US figures are baffling. There was impression that with massive vaccination in the USA and the European countries spread of Coronavirus as well as deaths were coming down. But itís more alarming that while the number of cases in the US has come down but the death rate has gone up. There is no explanation so far regarding thisî, said a health department official wanting not to be named.

He said, “That’s why the state government has decided to step up the preparations to tackle the third wave. Since the third wave may affect children too in the state the government has decided to deploy pediatric ambulances across the state while setting up oxygen plants among other measures.”