65% of Covid deaths in India are men, shows govt’s data

NEW DELHI : Fewer women are dying of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India as compared to men, and at least half of those who died were over the age of 60, according to data from the union health ministry.

Of the 1,074 Covid-19 deaths reported from across the country till April 30 afternoon, 65% are men, which is in line with the evidence so far that Covid-19 kills more men than women.

According to an April 22 study published in the peer reviewed American journal, JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), an analysis of 5,700 Covid-19 patients hospitalised in 12 hospitals in New York City showed that at least 60% were men, and of the 373 patients who were undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU), 66.5% were men. The most common co-morbidities were diabetes, hypertension, and obesity among critically ill patients.

Age and underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, kidney or heart disease, are also being seen as risk factors for developing a severe form of the disease in Indian patients. As many as 78% of those dead were suffering from some form of chronic health condition, and were above 60 years of age.

Of the 51.2% of those above the age of 60, 42% are between 60 and 75 years of age, and 9.2% were above 75 years of age. “The data clearly shows that the elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions need to be extra careful as they tend to develop a severe form of the disease,” said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Union health ministry.

India, however, is much better off as far as case fatality rate is concerned, with 3.2% of the total infected people dying. Globally, the current Covid-19 death rate is at 7.28%, with Italy having the highest at 13.60%.

“The reason for older people dying is because most of them suffer from some form of underlying medical conditions that leads to their immune system not being able to fight off the infection as well as it does in younger people with no co-morbidities,” said Dr Srikant Sharma, senior consultant, department of medicine, Moolchand Hospital, Delhi.

With 8,324 people of the 33,050 total infected people recovering , India’s recovery rate is 25.19%.

The case doubling rate has also seen significant improvement since past two weeks, from 3.4 days to the current 11 days.

Seven states and UTs have a doubling rate of between 11 and 20 days; these are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, J&K, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Punjab. Another five have a doubling rate between 20 and 40 days: Karnataka, Ladakh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Kerala. And four states , Assam, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh, have a doubling rate of more than 40 days.

“All these states have better parameters than the national average. However, even though these states are performing better, there still may be certain districts in these states that are reporting high number of cases, which is why we cannot afford to let our guard drop,” said Agarwal.