Unvaccinated, comorbid Omicron patients more vulnerable to death

Health experts have found a high death rate among patients with comorbid conditions – diabetes, heart disease, kidney complications, and cancer – and unvaccinated and elderly Covid-19 patients infected with the Omicron variant.

Bangladesh reported 33 more Covid deaths in the past 24 hours till 8am Thursday. The number of deaths from Covid has remained above 30 for the last five days.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) data, 322 people died of Covid in January and 73% of them were unvaccinated while 60% were comorbid patients.

Dr ASM Alamgir, principal scientific officer at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told The Business Standard that both Delta and Omicron variants are active in Bangladesh and both strains are causing deaths.

"Comorbid patients and elderly persons are vulnerable to any virus. Covid patients who are not vaccinated and are the elderly with comorbidity are dying at a higher rate," said Dr Alamgir.

The number of deaths could have surpassed 200 a day if the Delta variant had dominated, he added.

Now the daily cases stand at an average of 12,000, said Dr Alamgir.

He warned that it is a wrong concept that Omicron has mild symptoms with no death; the death rate from Omicron in the USA is 20%.

Dr Forhad Uddin Hasan Chowdhury, medicine and infectious diseases specialist at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told TBS that the death rate rises with increase in the patient number which increases death also.

Although there are mild symptoms due to Omicron, the number of deaths is on the rise, he added.

"Still many people are confused about vaccines which has made them victims. We are getting non-vaccinated and comorbid Covid patients at the hospitals," Dr Forhad Uddin Hasan Chowdhury said.

More than 11,596 new covid cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. Besides, the positivity rate was recorded at 25.86% during the same period after 44,843 samples were tested across the country.

More than 10,000 patients have been detected everyday for the past 12 days.

Over 85% of the patients infected with Omicron variant are staying in isolation at home due to mild symptoms.

Pressure is mounting in hospitals due to the rise in transmission. But more patients will be admitted to hospitals if more elderly persons are infected.

Dr Forhad said fewer people who took vaccines are admitted in hospitals. But those who are getting admitted need oxygen support, especially through high flow nasal cannula.

"I have not yet seen any Covid patient who took a booster dose. That is why it is urgent to bring all under the vaccine coverage," he said.

Unvaccinated people make up a majority of hospitalised patients. But older people without booster shots also sometimes struggle to shake off the virus, leaving them in need of extra oxygen or hospital stays, Dr Megan Ranney, an emergency physician at Brown University, told The New York Times on 1 February.

A record number of Americans with the highly contagious Omicron variant have filled up US hospitals in recent weeks and the average death toll is still around 2,500 a day.

Bangladesh logged 28,494 deaths and 18,35,776cases since the outbreak in 2020.