Covid-19 deaths: Unvaccinated, partially vaccinated paying the price

Bengaluru has recorded 12 Covid deaths since January 8 and most of them were senior citizens.

Data, however, also shows that four patients aged 40 and under also died. Two were unvaccinated while the other two had received only the first dose of the vaccine.

The four deaths took place at the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and Research Centre.

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The first death recorded was a 32-year-old partially vaccinated man with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection who perished on January 8, seven days after being diagnosed with the disease, said Dr A S Balasundar, Chief Health Officer, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

This was followed by the death on January 9 of an unvaccinated 37-year-old who was suffering from renal failure. The BBMP has classified his death as an “incidental finding”.

On January 10, a 30-year-old unvaccinated man died four days after diagnosis. The following day, a 40-year-old partially vaccinated man also perished. He had been diagnosed with the disease three days before.

Dr Balasundar said that unvaccinated individuals had been comprising over 20% of new Covid-19 cases in recent days and noted that they faced the greatest chance of suffering a fatal event due to the disease.

The BBMP said it recorded 36,025 cases in the first 10 days of January, out of which 5,631 cases were people who had not been vaccinated and another 3,819 were people with only one dose.

Some 3.68% of the unvaccinated group had developed moderate to severe disease in comparison to only 0.88% of fully vaccinated individuals who did so. Furthermore, 2.07% of the partially vaccinated group developed moderate to severe disease.

The deaths come even among widespread reporting of this Omicron-dominated third wave being mild. Infectious disease experts, however, said the definition of “mild” is largely subjective.

“Omicron is certainly a mild virus when it comes to causing lung or respiratory infections. However, its post-infection sequelae such as causing blood clots leading to cardiac arrest and embolism are still being studied,” said infectious disease expert Dr John Paul M of Sparsh Hospital. “If a person is not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated, there can be clinical consequences.”