Mumbai: The lockdown may have done the city a world of good to help contain the mortality rate in the pandemic outbreak, causing it to drop to 2.79% during Lockdown 4.0 from 6.37% during Lockdown 1.0. For Maharashtra, the corresponding numbers are 2.89%, down from 6.33%.
Health officials attributed the decrease to the strict implementation of the lockdown and early detection, along with medical experiments which yielded positive results. However, in June, with the gradual easing of lockdown rules (Unlock 1.0), this number has climbed to 4.20% and is a cause for concern.
State Surveillance Officer Dr Pradip Awate said there were several factors which contributed to the decrease in mortality rates in every phase of the lockdown. Early detection of cases was one of the factors which kept the number of deaths in control. “During Lockdown 1.0, people were not able to identify corona symptoms, which are similar to those of influenza and for this reason, they were not seeking treatment on time. This caused their health to deteriorate and they succumbed to illnesses during treatment,” he said.
However, this trend changed and soon, more people began to come forward for treatment of fever, cough or sore throats. This led to their timely treatments. “Early diagnosis helped us control Covid deaths, but the cases began increasing on a daily basis. We can see that in Lockdown 4.0 the mortality rate decreased to 2.79 per cent and 2.89 per cent in Mumbai and Maharashtra respectively,” added Dr Awate.
Senior officials from the health department of the BMC said the drop in mortality rate despite the rise in the number of deaths was good. The total number of tests and positive cases have also increased. “The more the virus spreads, the less dangerous it will be. So, while it will spread more than it has presently, it will get less severe. Also, the mortality rate going down is also because of early detection. I assume that in the coming days, though cases will go up, the mortality rate will remain the same or come down slightly,” said an official.
On the other hand in the first nine days of June, the mortality rates for Mumbai and Maharashtra had increased to 4.20 per cent and 4.33 per cent . “The death rate has increased, as 1,003 deaths have been reported in Maharashtra, 60 per cent of of which had occurred in the last two months and the numbers were updated in June,” Dr Awate said.
