Mumbai: There has been a steep fall in the number of Covid-19 deaths across Mumbai in the last four months. According to the data provided by the civic health department, 1,281 people have succumbed to the deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus in October 2020 compared to 226 corona deaths reported in January. Officials have attributed this drop to the awareness amongst the citizens with respect to corona. Moreover, with the help of immediate investigation and treatment, doctors are succeeding in saving the lives of patients. However, the health experts have urged citizens to follow Covid-19 norms as the cases are increasing on a daily basis which is a matter of concern.
In the first week of April, there were 768 cases and 56 deaths in Mumbai. The mortality rate was 7 to 8 per cent, while the state’s average was 8.46 per cent, which gradually came down to 5 per cent, and then fell further to 3 per cent.
Later in June, there was a problem of data reconciliation as some deaths were not accounted for in the city’s Covid mortality figures, after this, the death rate rose sharply again. In September, the fatality rate came down, but in October, it again rose to 3 per cent. In the last two months, it was around 2 per cent before coming down to 1.44 per cent last week.
Dr. Avinash Supe, head of the covid-19 death review committee said they had analysed cases and studied parameters and also observed data about the patients. Moreover, they had intensively studied 700-800 cases and realised that many patients were coming late and dying immediately. “In the initial phase of coronavirus, the patients used to take five to six days to reach hospitals after they felt symptoms. They used to wait for 2 to 3 days for getting tests done. In April and May, 63 per cent of the deaths happened in the first 48 hours, and this was a huge number. But now the scenario has totally changed as the patients are now understanding the important corona symptoms and they immediately consult their doctors before getting it too late,” he said.
Dr. Mangala Gomre, Executive Health Officer, BMC said that presently the death rate of Mumbai has reached 1.4 percent which was earlier very high. “In order to reduce the death rate, we did much planning and work was not done on it, but with the decrease in the number of new patients, the number of death have also fallen significantly,” she said. Meanwhile, 80 per cent of the overall 11,407 covid-19 deaths were more than 50-years of age and had comorbidities following they succumbed.
