Maharashtra’s Covid-19 mortality rate continues to remain high even as national rate reduces
The case fatality rate in Maharashtra has been hovering at 2.65% for the last four weeks; while the national rate came down to 1.5% from 1.57% over a month
While the positivity rate and daily count of Covid-19 cases is falling steadily, the case fatality rate (CFR) in Maharashtra has been hovering at 2.65% for the last four weeks. The death rate of other states and the nation overall has been steadily coming down.
Maharashtra has witnessed a significant reduction in the daily caseload. The state’s positivity rate in October dropped to 14.20% from over 20% last month. The case fatality rate of the state has, however, only dropped to 2.63% from 2.65% a month ago on September 27.
Meanwhile, the national rate reduced to 1.5% from 1.57% over a month. Gujarat, which has ranked closer to Maharashtra in mortality rate over the last few months, has been able to reduce its CFR to 2.20% now from 2.57% on September 27.
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“We had set the target of bringing the CFR below 1% in the beginning of July and had directed all district authorities accordingly. Despite hard efforts, we have not been able to achieve the target. Our tracing of contacts is still poor in several districts, besides the inferior quality of the health infrastructure. The machinery has not been able to bring infected people to health facilities and test them early. Proper tracing and awareness to remove stigma could have helped achieve this,” said an official from the health department, requesting anonymity.
The official added that a few districts like Solapur, Chandrapur have been, however, able to bring down the CFR below 4% from over 6% two months ago.
“We have been trying our level best to bring down the CFR. People report late to health facilities after having developed symptoms leading to the complications. Our My Family My Responsibility drive may help us on that front by bringing awareness among people. It is true that the daily testing has reduced, but tests are being administered as per the requirement,” said Sanjay Kumar, chief secretary, Maharashtra.
Dr Sanjay Pattiwar, public health consultant, said that the CFR is high also because of the poor facilities in ICUs and shortage of oxygen and ventilators in many districts. “The focus of the state machinery should now be more on the ICUs than the Covid care centres,” he said.