New Delhi, May 18: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Tuesday said exposure to high viral load is increasing the mortality among doctors while requested the government to augment the manpower in the healthcare sector.

Speaking to ANI, IMA president Dr JA Jayalal said, "Mortality among doctors is high as we are exposed to high viral load. We attain hundreds of patients whose infections are high. Also, many people come with symptomatic COVID, even their attendants are positive. So, doctors are exposed to this more."

"The working hours of doctors have been extended because the number of patients has increased. Keeping these all leads to high mortality among doctors. But this is not the case with doctors only, several deaths are occurring among the common public too," added Dr Jayalal. Since the beginning of the pandemic, IMA has maintained a registry on deaths of doctors. India Reports 4,529 COVID-19 Deaths in Past 24 Hours, Highest Single-Day Rise Since Pandemic Began; Daily Count Dips.

"In the second wave, we started the register in April. Till now we lost 269 doctors. Every day we record 20-25 deaths on an average," Dr Jayalal pointed out. IMA president further requested the government to increase the manpower of the entire healthcare sector that includes doctors, nurses and parameter staffs.

The IMA on Tuesday said that 269 doctors across the country have lost their lives due to COVID-19 infection in the second wave of coronavirus pandemic.

The IMA said Bihar suffered the largest number of casualties (78) followed by Uttar Pradesh (37) and Delhi (28). Global COVID-19 Caseload Tops 163.9 Million, Deaths Surge to More Than 3.39 Million: Johns Hopkins University.

State-wise data by IMA shows 22 doctors died due to COVID-19 in Andhra Pradesh, 19 in Telangana, 14 each in Maharashtra and West Bengal and 11 fatalities were reported in Tamil Nadu.

It added that 10 doctors also died in Odisha, eight in Karnataka and five in Madhya Pradesh. Earlier on Tuesday, Padma Shri awardee and former national president of the IMA Dr KK Aggarwal passed away after a long battle with COVID-19 at AIIMS in Delhi. India reported 2,63,533 new COVID cases and 4,329 deaths in the last 24 hours, said the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday.

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