Shimla: The second wave of Covid-19 has claimed more lives as compared to the first wave in Himachal Pradesh.
In a comparison conducted by the health department, it has come out that there have been 2,262 deaths in the second wave (till Friday).
During the first wave, 982 people had succumbed to the virus.
The state has so far recorded a total number of 3,244 Covid deaths.
In all, 69.7% deaths occurred in the second wave, while poseightitivity rate rose to more than double.
Compared to 58,403 cases in the first wave, the state reported 1,35,521 cases till Friday in the second wave.
If the first wave is considered to be from the detection of first case in March last year till February 23 this year, when the number of active cases was at its lowest, the average number of cases reported in the first wave per day was 171, while the same in the second wave is 1,342 per day — an eight-time rise.
According to health department officials, the mean age of deaths in the second wave was 61.
In the first wave, it was 64.2 years.
The case fatality rate registered in the first wave was 1.68% as compared to 1.67% in the second wave.
The majority of the people who lost their lives in the second wave had comorbidities (around 70%) whereas in the second wave only 41.6% of such cases were seen.
The age distribution of deaths reveals that the percentage of deaths occurring in the 30-44 age group out of total deaths, almost doubled in the second wave, with 290 patients losing their precious lives in this age group in second wave.
A government spokesperson said 8.95% patients died at home in the second wave, higher when compared to 5.09 % in the first wave.
Also, 4.1 % of cases were brought dead in the second wave.
The official said there was not much difference in the percentage of hospital deaths that occurred in the first wave and the second wave, which indicated that even though the number of cases increased in the second wave, the state government was well prepared with its resources like beds, oxygen, remedesivir, steroids and other drugs.