NATIONWIDE DEATH TOLL 9,000
At 2.9%, India’s fatality rate is lower compared to the world’s 5.5%, experts worried about new hot spots
NEW DELHI: Coronavirus deaths in India crossed 9,000 on Saturday, with the country adding the last 1,000 deaths in three days.
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi account for roughly two-thirds of all deaths in India, which recorded an average of 377 deaths every day over the past week.
On Saturday, the death toll touched 9,196, having crossed 8,000 on June 10 and 7,000 on June 3. With 321,405 cases as on Saturday night, India’s case fatality rate is 2.9%, compared to the world’s 5.5%.
In all, India’s Covid-19 toll has increased by at least 6,000 in less than four weeks, with total deaths crossing the 3,000 mark on May 18.
NEWDELHI: Coronavirus deaths in India crossed 9,000 on Saturday, with the country adding the last 1,000 deaths in three days.
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi account for roughly twothirds of all deaths in India, which recorded an average of 377 deaths every day over the past week.
On Saturday, the death toll touched 9,196, having crossed 8,000 on June 10 and 7,000 on June 3. With 321,405 cases as on Saturday night, India’s case fatality rate is 2.9%, compared to the world’s 5.5%.
In all, India’s Covid-19 toll has increased by at least 6,000 in less than four weeks, with total deaths crossing the 3,000 mark on May 18. The toll in India touched 1,000 on April 28, 47 days after the first Covid-19 death was confirmed in Hyderabad on March 12.
Over the past 24 hours, 7,135 patients have been cured, taking the recovery rate to 49.95%, according to ministry of health and family welfare data. The number of recovered patients continues to remain more than the number of those with infections, 162,271 to 149,938.
“I think mortality per million population is a much better metric to judge how Covid-19 has affected us. The case fatality rate can change depending on the denominator of the number of people who are tested and turn out to be positive,” said Amit Singh, associate professor at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
With the number of cases rising, experts say the focus must be on preventing deaths. “To reduce the number of deaths, cities and states have to look at the number of people being hospitalised. If that number shoots up, then beds and ventilators will be occupied, leading to more deaths. So wherever the number of hospitalizations is going up, the local governments need to implement lockdown measures. By unlocking at a time when the number of cases and hospitalizations are rising, we are doing more harm than good,” said Singh.
Where lockdowns are not an option, the next best thing is to use personal protection measures, experts say.
“The hotspots have begun shifting to newer areas and in Ahmedabad, new infections are going down in the central-south zones such as Dariapur, Shahpur, Danilimda, Jamalpur, and Saraspur, among others. Only serosurveillance data from the hot spots will indicate whether it’s (because of) herd immunity or whether the virus has exhausted susceptible people in these wards, which is leading to a reduction in cases and deaths.” said Dr Dileep Mavalankar, director, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Sero-surveillance is simply blood tests conducted to test for the antibodies to the virus that causes the disease. Their presence indicates past infection and, more importantly, immunity.
A multi-city sero-surveillance being conducted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to estimate the fraction of the population that has past exposure to Sars-Cov-2 in containment zones is ongoing.
Health ministry data on Saturday said 885 labs have been approved to test for Covid.
“Testing is an important component of surveillance and guides contract tracing, isolation and treatment. It also shows where response efforts need to be directed to combat the disease. India has been calibrating its testing strategy as per the changing situation, taking into account scope, need and capacity. With increased testing, the trajectory of positive cases will go up,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, WHO South East Asia Regional Office.