madurai even as active cases in the district nears 4000 on monday the number of covid19 deaths in january has been only eight so far with a death rate of 001 however doctors and health officials are keeping a close watch on intensive care unit icu admissions and urged the public to not underestimate the severity of covid19 especially when with comorbidities or not being unvaccinatedin madurai just in 17 days this year 5293 cases have been reported doctors have urged the public to take covid19 symptoms seriously from an early stage to avoid icu admissions and fatalities especially in case of those who have comorbid conditions or are above 60 years of age proper monitoring is needed if they have any influenzalike illness ili symptoms if such patients test covid19 positive they must consult a doctor and get triaged institutional admission is recommended for them as their vitals can be closely monitored to avoid any sudden worsening of condition said a senior physician at government rajaji hospitalat the start of january hardly 10 icu beds were occupied by covid19 patients but now 49 beds in tertiary care centres have been occupied as per data from the state health department dr k kolandasamy public health expert and former director of tamil nadu public health said that vulnerable patients taking c reactive protein crp test along with checking of other vitals blood sugar etc can help better predict the possibility of lung involvement it will take at least seven days for oxygen saturation level to fall in a covid19 patient however through the crp test we can find out if a patient is prone to lung involvement at an early stage so that it can give a better chance for treatment and doctors can advise accordingly he added