Maharashtra sees drop in Covid-19 fatality rate

Maharashtra has the second-highest CFR in the country followed by Gujarat (3.32). On July 26, the national CFR was 2.28 while it was 3.63 in Maharashtra and 4.17% in Gujarat

The Covid-19 case fatality rate (CFR), or the proportion of deaths compared to the number of people diagnosed with the disease, in Maharashtra has come done rapidly over the last few weeks even as it remains higher (3.24%) compared to 1.85% nationally, officials aware of the matter said. It has dropped significantly over the last two months and ranged between 2.76 and 2.89% in July and August. The officials said the cumulative figure is more because of a higher fatality rate during the initial stage of the pandemic.

A health department officer said tracing, tracking and testing in parts of the state is not up to the mark leading to the high speed of the infection spread and fatalities. (AP)

Maharashtra has the second-highest CFR in the country followed by Gujarat (3.32). On July 26, the national CFR was 2.28 while it was 3.63 in Maharashtra and 4.17% in Gujarat.

Maharashtra’s CFR dropped in July and August to 2.89 and 2.76%. “..our fatality rate has dropped by just 1% in the last six weeks and is slow compared to the national progress. Our CFR in May touched 6%, which has now dropped to less than 3% if you take monthly figures. The average is 3.24% because of the cumulative figures. Initially, we were fumbling with the line of treatment, administration of drugs, and even the infrastructure as the virus was new. This led to the high fatality rate, which has now been brought under control. We are very much confident that it will be brought under control very rapidly,” said epidemiologist and state surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate. He said poor infrastructure in some parts of the state is also responsible for the high CFR. Awate added the state’s infection fatality rate is less than one per thousand.

As many as 1,328 fatalities were added to the state’s tally on June 16 by reconciling the deaths from previous weeks. This led to a sudden rise in the CFR to 4.8% from 3.79% a day earlier. The CFR between March 9, when the first case was reported and June 15 (before the reconciliation of death data), was 3.72%. It is 3.14% if the figures are calculated between June 16 and August 25.

Dr Ravi Wankhedkar, a former national president of the Indian Medical Association, said the high CFR was also due to the lack of medical facilities. “The health infrastructure is concentrated in cities and it is very poor in mofussil and rural areas. In districts like Dhule, Nandurbar, the turnaround time for the test report is more than two days. The government could not ramp up the infrastructure at tehsil and village level the way it should have been. It has also failed to bring awareness among the people through community involvement about the nature of the infection to weed out fear from the minds of the people. This resulted in people living under stigma about the infection.”

A health department officer said tracing, tracking and testing in parts of the state is not up to the mark leading to the high speed of the infection spread and fatalities.