Maharashtra has been one of the worst impacted states in the country for COVID-19 outbreak. As the number of cases in the state are about to touch the 700 mark, there is another worry that the officials are dealing with, which is the rising death toll. It has been said that the average death for coronavirus has been around 1 per cent to four per cent. The lowest fatality rate is recorded in Germany, which is at 1.4 per cent which is a sharp contrast to the neighbouring country Italy with 12 per cent. Other countries in Europe too have varied fatality rate with Spain recording a whopping 10 per cent while France and Britain are at 4 per cent. China, the place where all this chaos began recorded a fatality rate of 4 per cent. South Korea, which has been appreciated the world over for the management of the disease and perfecting the model of doing maximum tests and flattening the curve has a fatality rate of 1.7 per cent. US which has the highest number of people testing positive has a fatality rate of 2.5 per cent. (*All data compiled till April 3, 2020, Friday)
In India, the fatality rate in India on the other hand with 72 deaths and 3,374 cases as shared by the Union Health Ministry by April 4, stands at 2.2 per cent. While this is remarkably lower than most developed countries, there is one more thing in India that needs to be looked at. The fatality rate in various cities is very different from the others.
The highest fatality rate in India has been recorded in Himachal Pradesh which is as high as 16.6 per cent, which is followed by Gujrat with 9.5 per cent cases. Kerala, which is the first case in the country to have reported a COVID-19 positive case and also the state that has been impacted in a big way, the fatality rate is less than 1 per cent.
The fatality rate in Maharashtra which has the maximum number of positive cases in the country is 4.89 per cent which is close to 5 per cent. While the fatality rate in Mumbai is slightly less at 4 per cent. Till Friday, there were 18 deaths reported from Mumbai.
Now with the number of cases increasing and the Coronavirus spreading to tricky places such as Dharavi slum area, the task of BMC to combat this diseases becomes even more challenging. To tackle this, Mumbai too is following the same model as South Korea and focusing on getting as many people tested as possible. As per BMC chief Praveen Pardeshi in Mumbai over 10,000 samples have been tested, which is even ahead of progressive states like Kerala. Speaking to a leading daily he revealed, "Mumbai has carried out 658 tests per million and the positivity rate is around 3 per cent. In comparison, Maharashtra has carried out 51 tests per million, while India had done 36 tests per million. It is through testing that we are able to detect and quarantine people early before they have full-blown symptoms and infect several others".
Pardeshi feels that the only way that Mumbai can win this battle is by quarantining all the high-risk contacts. “We intend to quarantine 5,000 people in BMC facilities, unlike our previous strategy of home-quarantining them,” he said.
There are plans to convert all open or vacant building and convert them into isolation wards. Pardeshi also warned that if people don’t adhere to the orders then BMC and Mumbai Police will also not shy away from using force to restrict them.
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