At 1.62%, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Uttarakhand is higher than the national average of 1.51%, according to the Centre’s data.
Since the pandemic began in mid-March, 960 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died in Uttarakhand due to the virus and co-morbidities.
Dehradun tops the list with more than half the casualties at 550 deaths followed by the three districts of Nainital (137), Haridwar (119) and US Nagar (84) in the plains. Comparatively, the hilly districts have reported less deaths with Chamoli district reporting only a single casualty so far.
There are 14 states in the country where the CFR is less than 1 % according to the data released by the Central government on October 21. Some of these states include Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, Kerala and Telangana.
In case of other states including Uttarakhand, the Centre has advised them to aim at bringing down the CFR to below 1%.
While the recovery rate at the national level is 88.81%, in Uttarakhand, with 52,632 people having recovered out of 59,106 people who tested positive so far, the recovery rate has reached 89.05%.
Out of Uttarakhand’s Covid-19 tally of 59,106, Dehradun district has reported the maximum of 16,434 cases followed by Haridwar (10,680), US Nagar (9,257) and Nainital (6949). The Himalayan state has so far tested over 9.41 lakh samples of which results of over 14,400 are awaited. The state currently has 69 containment zones in seven districts including a maximum of 30 in Dehradun district.
{{/usCountry}}Out of Uttarakhand’s Covid-19 tally of 59,106, Dehradun district has reported the maximum of 16,434 cases followed by Haridwar (10,680), US Nagar (9,257) and Nainital (6949). The Himalayan state has so far tested over 9.41 lakh samples of which results of over 14,400 are awaited. The state currently has 69 containment zones in seven districts including a maximum of 30 in Dehradun district.
{{/usCountry}}Abhishek Tripathi, chief operational officer for Covid-19 in Uttarakhand said there are possibly many reasons for high fatality rate in the state compared to the national level.
“With a large number of people having returned to the state, many of them also tested positive and died later. We are also getting many cases from Western Uttar Pradesh region at AIIMS Rishikesh. These are adding up here. Also, we have increased testing. We are conducting 8,000 to 10,000 tests daily. So it is natural that more people will be detected positive and accordingly death rate will also see a little surge. Then many people who have died due to other reasons like accidents, have also tested positive later. And maximum people have died due to comorbidities. But we are reporting all deaths of Covid-19 positive people,” he said.
Anoop Nautiyal, from NGO Social Development for Communities Foundation, who has been analysing the Covid-19 data in Uttarakhand, said the state has been doing good with respect to most Covid metrics except for the death rate.
“Recovery rate in the state is higher than at the national level, active cases have also reduced in the state, testing has been increased; the only concern that remains is higher death rate than the national average. Apart from efforts by the government, people should also report about complicated cases faster to the health authorities, so that death due to comorbidities is reduced,”, he said
Nautiyal said CFR increased primarily from the first week of September and due to such a trend, the overall death rate has also increased in the state.