Tripura logs 700 new COVID-19 cases, 5 more deaths
Agartala: Tripura's COVID-19 tally rose to 56,169 as 700 more people tested positive for the virus, while five new fatalities pushed the coronavirus death toll to 574, a health official said on Wednesday.
The state currently has 5,152 active COVID-19 cases, the official said.
At least 563 more people recuperated since Tuesday, taking the total number of COVID-19 recoveries to 50,380.
The COVID-19 recovery rate now is 89.79 per cent.
Altogether, 10,72,002 samples have been tested so far for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, health experts said 50-60 per cent of the COVID-19 patients in the second wave in the state are infected by the double mutant variant of coronavirus or Delta variant.
"Like some other states, the infection of Delta strain in Tripura is high -- around 50 to 60 per cent. The double mutant variant is infecting young people, even children as well. It is a matter of concern", said Dr Tapan Majumder, head of the Microbiology department of Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC).
As the Delta strain is now claiming comparatively more lives than the previous ones, Dr Majumder said that a high dose of the virus infection, late diagnosis that increases the risk factors and immune deficiency were the principal causes as per the death audit.
"While analyzing some of the RT-PCR test reports of the Covid-infected patients who died, we found that the viral load of the virus was very high in most of the cases. They might have been attacked by the virus in an unsafe position... ", Dr Majumder told reporters.
"Late diagnosis and less immunity power of the infected persons are also the reasons behind such deaths. Some people after developing symptoms, are avoiding tests. In that case, by the time the patients start suffering from breathing problems and reach the hospital, the infection reaches a high level," he said.
Majumder said that as young people have the capacity to tolerate heavy hypoxia, sometimes they don't realise the breathing problem even if the oxygen saturation level comes down to 80 unless they monitor it by a pulse Oximeter.
