COVID-19 deaths: What numbers signify

Prof. Samath Dharmaratne | Navinee Wimalaratna | Charunda Wijeratne Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya

The unprecedented spread of COVID-19 pandemic has been taking the world by storm since its initial discovery in the latter half of December 2019. Although Sri Lanka appeared to be initially sheltered from its deadly impact, the recent revelation of five COVID deaths within the span of one day has led to numerous speculations about the uncertainty of the future.

COVID-19 patients were first isolated in Sri Lanka in late January, 2020. Since then there have been 12 570 cases reported as of 06th November 2020. Out of these patients, 29 have unfortunately succumbed to death. According to Graph 1, the fact that 16 of these fatalities occurred within the past 2 weeks has raised major concern. Although a specific reason for this is yet to be unveiled, the possibility of a different, more virulent strain of the virus has been speculated by the researchers of University of Sri Jayawardanapura.

According to the data from the Department of Government Information, all except one of the deceased patients were over the age of 40 years. The exception was a 19-year-old male from Nugegoda, who was said to have had other comorbid conditions. More information regarding these cases have been illustrated in table 1. The highest number of deaths were between the ages of 40-60 years and almost all of them suffered from other conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. This is of importance, as many tend to disregard the gravity of the situation because the death rate in Sri lanka has been comparatively low so far. This is mainly owing to the fact that many of the patients who were infected earlier were relatively young and free of other comorbidities. However, with a high possibility of impending community spread, the elderly population will soon be victims of the disease and as indicated by the recent pattern, will be at high risk of death. Therefore, more attention has to be paid to preventing the disease from spreading to the aging population.

Many of these patients had passed away while they were under hospital care, mostly at IDH, but a few perished even before hospital admission. This shows the gravity of the situation proving that the symptoms may escalate rapidly into a fatal condition even before having the chance to seek medical help.

Currently, the deaths have only been reported from the Western and North Western provinces, mostly from Colombo district as denoted by map 1. This is owing to the fact that many of these patients were originally detected from the Minuwangoda cluster or were under quarantine at IDH. In conclusion, time has come for more serious methods in controlling the rampant spread of this perilous disease. It is our duty and responsibility as citizens of Sri Lanka, to ensure the safety of all ,especially the vulnerable population.