Maharashtra: High case fatality rate remains a cause for concern for state authorities

The CFR in Maharashtra has risen over the past few weeks, up from 3.25% on May 25 and 3.37% on May 31, when the state government had vowed to bring it down to below 3%.

The number of deaths due to Covid-19 in Maharashtra has crossed the 6,000-mark even as the case fatality rate (CFR) remained high at 4.67%, much above the national rate of 3.23%.

Maharashtra’s cumulative number of Covid-19 cases on Sunday evening stood at 132,07 and the death toll touched 6,170. (HT photo)

The CFR in Maharashtra has risen over the past few weeks, up from 3.25% on May 25 and 3.37% on May 31, when the state government had vowed to bring it down to below 3%.

Maharashtra’s cumulative number of Covid-19 cases on Sunday evening stood at 132,07 and the death toll touched 6,170. Mumbai alone accounted for 66,488 cases and 3,671 deaths.

The state government’s recent exercise of reconciliation last week led to the addition of 1,328 cases on June 16, resulting in a sudden spike in CFR to 4.8%, up from 3.79% the day before.

A total of 862 cases were added in Mumbai alone after the reconciliation, leading to a spurt in the city’s CFR, which stood at 5.52% on Sunday. Similarly, a few other districts, including Aurangabad, Solapur and Jalgaon, have high CFRs and this has forced the state machinery to concentrate on reducing the rate.

“For the next two weeks, we are concentrating on reducing deaths in the state. We are ready for the rising case load and the health infrastructure has been augmented by the government after the task force insisted upon it. Our decisions of introducing plasma therapy and using tocilizumab medicine have paid off well. Now, we have demanded the use of remdesivir medicine ” said Sanjay Oak, who heads the task force of 11 doctors constituted by the government for the clinical management of critically ill patients.

Oak said the task force expects an undulating pattern of cases and there will be ups and downs for the next few days, before the numbers start subsiding.

The state government has been highlighting the improvement in the doubling rate and betterment in the recovery rate, but the rise in CFR has proved worrisome for authorities.

“The district collectors and civic authorities have been directed to go in for aggressive tracing of suspected contacts and their testing. They have been asked to concentrate on vulnerable people and their clusters to keep deaths in check. They have been asked to trace more than 10 people against every positive patient to contain the spread,” said a state official who declined to be named.

The state recovery rate is currently 49.78%. The doubling rate improved to 25.9 days on June 16, up from 3.5 days on March 31 and 10.2 days on April 30 and 20.1 days on May 31, the state health department said.