In an attempt to bring down the overall COVID-19 fatality rate (CFR) below 1 per cent, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now directed all the COVID hospitals to follow ‘Mission Save Lives’ from now onwards.
Although there has been a four-fold rise in active cases in the last month, the mortality rate of the city has remained constant below 3 per cent. Officials and doctors said the drop in mortality rate has led to laxity on the part of the citizens due to which COVID cases across Mumbai are increasing rapidly.
According to the civic data, 212 people had succumbed to the deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus in March as compared to 111 in February, which means the CFR had increased by 1.8 per cent in March.
Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner of the BMC, said they have directed all the health and ward officers to follow the 'Mission Save Lives' which was initiated last June to curb the CFR, which was as high as 5.5 per cent and later, dropped to 3 per cent. Hospitals now onwards have to maintain all detailed records of the deceased patients like the time gap between the detection of COVID-19 and hospital admission, underlying comorbidities, medicines are given among others.
“After launching Mission Save Lives last year, the death rate had come down. Again, we will have to adhere to the same nine-point programme to curb COVID fatalities in the city. We have directed all the hospitals, including private ones, to analyse the treatment protocol of COVID patients from the time of their admission to the hospital and the details should be given to the ward war room on the same day,” he said. Currently, in the city, the CFR is 2.87 per cent, still higher than the state CFR, which is 1.98 per cent.
Health experts said it is a good thing that the mortality rate is under control, but contradictory to this people have become careless and carefree following which they are not adhering to COVID protocols.
“If we go by the statistics COVID deaths are controlled in Mumbai, but in Maharashtra, we have been witnessing more than 200 deaths for the last two days which cannot be neglected. Following which citizens should strictly follow COVID norms to avoid any further spread of infections. Moreover, citizens showing COVID symptoms are being diagnosed late due to which treatment is delayed and it contributes to a rising in COVID-related deaths,” said Dr Avinash Supe, chairman of the state-appointed death audit committee.
