Covid-19: Mumbai keeps cases under check, but deaths rise

Mumbai may have succeeded in controlling the spread of novel coronavirus in the last one month, but the maximum city is struggling to keep a tab on the death rate due to the infection.

The death rate of Mumbai (on August 19) stood at a staggering 5.54% while that of Maharashtra is 3.36% and India’s is mere 1.91%. The death rate is calculated as the number of deaths per hundred positive patients. To put it in simple words, the city has reported 554 deaths per 10,000 patients.

The death count of the city was 7,222 as of Wednesday. On an average, 40 deaths have been reported every day in the last 10 days.

Former chief minister and leader of opposition in the state, Devendra Fadnavis, has also raised concern over rising deaths in Mumbai. He urged the state to increase testing to check the death rate.

In a letter to the chief minister’s office (CMO), Fadnavis said, “Looking at the increasing infections and deaths, the administration needs to focus on more testing, find out new patients and isolate them to keep others safe.”

As of August 16, the city had conducted 6.71 lakh tests while the test positivity rate is 19.40 which should be lowered in order to curb the spread, say experts.

The positive news is that the number of cases has declined in Mumbai over the past few days. The growth rate stood at just 0.7% as on August 19. The rate of doubling of cases has reached 89 days. This is an important parameter to gauge the extent of the spread of infection.

The overall case count in Mumbai is 1.30 lakh while 1.05 lakh out of those have already been treated and discharged from the hospitals. The number of active cases stands at 17,693 and the number is constantly declining as the number of recoveries is higher than new cases reported every day.

Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner G/north ward, said, “The death rate is high even today, but the numbers do not give the complete picture. Many of these deaths were reported at the beginning of the pandemic while now the number is declining steadily. Because all the deaths since the beginning are considered while calculating the death rate, the overall number looks huge.”

When asked about the reasons behind so many deaths, the deputy executive health officer of BMC, Daksha Shah, told The Federal, “High comorbidities like diabetes and high blood pressure is the major reason behind these deaths.”

The delay in detection is also one of the vital reasons, said Shah. She further added, “People still have a stigma around COVID which is why they tend to delay testing and further treatment. The comorbid group especially should take extra care.”

BMC is running ‘Mission Save Life’ to ensure that deaths are reduced. She said, “We are conducting house-to-house surveys for early detection. The infrastructure availability is ensured as well as specialists are in constant conversation with all the doctors treating COVID patients.”

BMC is also conducting an audit of deaths, she said.