Mumbai: According to the public health department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the mortality rate due to coronavirus has dropped to 4.28 per cent (April 22), down by 2.79 per cent from 7.07 per cent reported on April 12.
In Maharashtra too, the death rate has dipped to 4.76 per cent, from 7.51 per cent in the corresponding period.
Officials and health experts have attributed this to better surveillance and change in protocol of assessment of deaths. Dr Om Shrivastava, infectious diseases expert, said the difference in number of Covid cases and deaths was due to the changed testing protocol and early diagnosis of corona patients.
It is good news that the mortality rate has decreased as the BMC and doctors are doing better surveillance and most cases are diagnosed at an early stage. So, their treatment starts early, and they recover, he said.
On April 12, the BMC had decided to stop testing asymptomatic people altogether, except for pregnant women, senior citizens, cancer and kidney patients. Since then, testing facilities have increased and helped medical officers to identify highrisk symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.
“As per the new rule, only high-risk symptomatic patients are being given treatment on priority basis, while high-risk asymptomatic patients are being tested between the fifth and fourteenth day of their quarantine.
This is helping us treat patients before it’s late,” said civic officials. Earlier, the BMC had been reporting deaths of all infected persons as Covid-19 deaths, but with the new assessment protocol, mortality rate has decreased.
“Co-morbidities were one of the reasons for 85 per cent of Covid deaths in the city. The virus did not directly infect these patients. Moreover, auditing before reporting a death was also done during dengue and H1N1 outbreaks,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, health.
Dr Avinash Supe, director of the Hinduja Khar Hospital, who heads the committee auditing coronavirus deaths, also welcomed the decision. “Our aim is to prevent mortality. Testing symptomatic people will help provide early treatment,” he said.
Congress MLA Amin Patel has welcomed the move of the BMC, saying the move to audit Covid deaths was a good one and should have been done earlier. “On a daily basis, the number of deaths was increasing, which created panic amongst citizens and in 80 per cent Covid deaths, there were co-morbidities involved.
If the civic body is doing a death audit the right way, at least people will learn that deaths do not happen due to coronavirus, they're happening due to late diagnosis,” he said. On the other hand, some corporators have alleged that the BMC is hiding the actual number of deaths in Mumbai.
“Earlier, they were reporting all deaths but suddenly they realised the number should not be given until it is audited by the death review committee. It shows the BMC is hiding data,” said a corporator.
