12 days to the hospital: Dozens die at home without Covid-19 tests in Bengaluru

The average Covid-19 patient in Bengaluru takes nearly 12 days to get hospitalised, said Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad, who attributed the delay to a combination of patient hesitancy and lethargy of the system.

He said that on average, an infected person develops symptoms on or after the fifth day. “After that, he/she spends at least two days considering the implications of getting tested and the potential stigma,” he said at the BBMP Council Meeting.

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It is usually on the seventh day when a Covid test is done. “If it is RT-PCR, the testing of sample and uploading of report on ICMR portal takes two to three days. By when the Palike mobilises to hospitalise the patient, another 48 hours would have elapsed.” In the interim, people are spreading the disease, he said.

DH has details of several patients over the last three weeks who suffered low levels of oxygen saturation and subsequently died, either without having had a test done or while waiting to be hospitalised.

According to data from the Department of Health and Family, there were 73 recorded cases in the city who died at home. But it is not yet clear how many of these died because of what exact circumstances, said Dr Thrilok Chandra, Head, Critical Care Support Unit.

Rida Z, an activist helping to get patients admitted, said the biggest category of deaths are those who develop symptoms and do not know what to do.

“In the meantime, their symptoms progressively get worse and they die either, without having been tested or while waiting for the test result to come. The second category are people who test positive for the disease and succumb to the disease while waiting for the Palike to respond,” said Rida who is part of a network of NGOs, philanthropists and even IAS officers helping to get patients admitted to hospitals.

“Either scenario is plausible for some cases: that they either died while waiting for test results to come or died while waiting to go to the hospital," said Dr Thrilok Chandra. "We need to conduct an after-death interview of the family to determine when onset of symptoms happened and why they couldn’t make it to a hospital,” he said.