Covid death ratio rising a mth after cases peaked | Economic Times

Exactly a month after India’s cases started declining following the second wave peak on May 7, the death ratio is still showing an increasing trend and has remained a cause for worry for the government. India’s death ratio or the proportion of infected people who died of Covid-19 is still increasing. India had reached the peak of the second wave on May 7 when it reported 414,188 cases. Since then, the daily new cases have been declining steadily. However, death ratio is showing an increase. In the week from May 10 to May 16, India’s death ratio was 1.05%. It increased to 1.1% in the May 17-23 week and then to 1.17% in the May 24-31 week. The death ratio has increased to 1.23% during June 7-10. All states and union territories, barring eight, have witnessed an increasing trend. In six states and two union territories, the death ratio has either declined or remained the same from May 8 till date. These include Andhra Pradesh (where death ratio was 0.68% and is now 0.66%), West Bengal (1.25% to 1.15%), Gujarat (1.23% to 1.22%), Odisha (0.44% to 0.38%), Tripura (1.08% to 1.03%), Sikkim (1.71% to 1.56%), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (0.05 to 0.04%) and Ladakh (remains same at 1.01%). Nineteen out of 36 states and UTs have death ratios more than that of the national average of 1.23%. Usually, there is a 14-day lag between the increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths. However, during the second wave, patients are suffering from long Covid-19 and the average length of stay at a medical facility has increased. A senior health ministry official told ET, “If there is an adverse outcome from hospitalisation leading to the death of a patient, that time frame has now become 21 or even 30 days. So, deaths have a longer time gap.”Dr Giridhara R Babu, professor and head (life course epidemiology), Public Health Foundation of India, told ET, “The entire scenario about understanding of deaths is now confounded. It is a spurious trend induced by many factors like time lag in reporting of deaths and undercounting.”