Cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India surpassed six million on Sunday, with the last million infections in 11 days and the death toll from the disease approaching 100,000, even as it surpassed the number of those that have recovered so far. the five million mark.
Although India’s fatality rate (CFR), the proportion of people who have died among confirmed cases, 1.6% is still nearly half the world average of 3.1%, the number of deaths reported in the country per million inhabitants has experienced an increase of 42% in September alone: from 50 deaths per million to 71.
On September 1, a total of 50 people had died for every million inhabitants of the country. This number rose to 62 by Sept. 15 and, as of Sept. 27, stands at 71 deaths per million residents, according to HT’s Covid-19 panel.
Click here for full coronavirus coverage
The seven-day average of daily deaths (commonly known as the death trajectory) has increased from 984 deaths per day during the week ending September 1 to 1,096 during the week ending September 27.
As on Sunday, India’s Covid count was 6,073,310cases and 95,567 deaths, with 82,824 new cases and 1,028 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours. India has had the worst Covid outbreak in the world since the first week of August, accounting for more than a quarter of all infections recorded since then. In the last week, nearly one in three (29.9%) new infections reported worldwide and one in five deaths (20.9%) came from India.
Epidemiologists, however, said the increase in deaths was not unexpected considering the increase in overall cases in the country. “As the number of cases continues to increase, so will the number of deaths; is directly linked. Furthermore, it is linked to the efficient reporting of cases and deaths in the long term, as some states that were lagging before in terms of case reporting are now catching up, ”said Dr. Giridhara Babu, Professor of Epidemiology, Institute Indian Public Health Health Foundation of India.
Also read: Why Proper Testing is Crucial to Saving Lives
Globally, India is among the countries that have done relatively better in terms of saving lives. The world average of deaths per million inhabitants is 129. Russia reports about 139; South Africa is at 275; France has an average of 485; The United States is at 631; United Kingdom in 618; and Brazil reports 665 deaths from Covid-19 per million of its population. All figures are from worldometers.info.
Meanwhile, government data shows that men are much more likely to die from Covid-19 in India than women, with the former accounting for 69% of all deaths.
Analysis of mortality data by the Union Ministry of Health shows that the majority of deaths occurred among those over 50 years of age. It showed that 1% of those who succumbed to the viral infection were under 17 years old; another 1% between 18 and 25 years; 11% of deaths among people aged 26 to 44; and 36% among people between 45 and 60 years old.
People with comorbidities and the elderly are at high risk, with nearly 70% of those who die having one or more comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, heart, kidney or liver disease, the data shows.
“Deaths are reported in the age group 60 and over because this age group generally suffers from some type of underlying medical conditions that hinder the recovery process. Therefore, it is important that this age group take extra precautions and also keep their disease under control, ”said Dr. Srikant Sharma, consultant in the department of medicine at Moolchand Hospital.
Overall, there is a good chance of recovery among Covid-19 patients, and the country’s recovery rate is about 82% today. The number of active patients has been below one million for several days. The number of active cases is 15.96% of the total positive cases.
“This high rate of daily recoveries has sustained India’s world leading position as the country with the highest number of recovered cases. Since India records more recoveries than new cases, the gap between the percentage of recovered cases and the percentage of active cases is continuously increasing. The gap is currently almost 4 million, ”the Health Ministry said in a statement.
.
