MUMBAI: Covid-19 mortality in the city declined by 72% in February compared to January when the third wave had arrived and peaked. The city witnessed less than 100 deaths (68) in the month -- one of the lowest monthly averages seen in the pandemic -- against January’s 247 fatalities.
Covid-19 deaths dropped in the state too but not as steeply as in the city. The state saw 1,086 deaths in February, a 14% fall compared to 1,267 deaths in January. Dr Avinash Supe, who heads the state's Covid death audit committee, said that the case fatality rates (CFR) due to the pandemic virus were at its lowest.
“Deaths are mainly in elderly people with comorbidities. Fewer people are coming with breathlessness, pneumonia and dying of the classical complications of Covid,” he said, calling it a good sign when the city is inching back to its pre-Covid life.
At its peak of both waves, the city and the state had seen the CFR cross 3%. After falling to 0.09% in January, the case fatality rate for Mumbai stood at 0.7% in February. The low January CFR was due to an astonishingly high number of cases (2.6 lakh) detected compared to 9,808 cases in February (a lower case tally pushes the CFR upwards). Maharashtra’s CFR has been at 0.7% in February, up from 0.1% in January-an increase attributable to fewer cases detected this month. Compared to 10.3 lakh cases in January, Covid cases dropped to 1.4 lakh in February in the state.
A state official said that a low case fatality rate was one of the key factors taken into consideration before opening all sectors. “We may see a further drop in deaths, but it’s not likely to disappear completely,” the official said. Maharashtra has seen a total of 1.43 lakh Covid deaths of which Pune has registered the highest (20,152) followed by Mumbai (16,691) and Thane (11,856).
Dr Supe concurred that the reason why the state and the city may continue to see the deaths is because of the high burden of comorbidities in the population. Hypertension and diabetes, two most commonly prevalent comorbidities in the state, were also the most frequently found underlying health conditions in people who succumbed to Covid. A doctor from SevenHills confirmed that upto 80-85% deaths are seen in people with known comorbidities.
Despite the sharp fall in deaths, the health system and people cannot take their eyes off the infection, said Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the Covid-19 taskforce. “We have to take care of the vulnerable and ensure they have taken both vaccine doses,” he said. Worryingly, as state immunisation officer Dr Sachin Desai confirmed, more than a crore people in the state haven’t finished their vaccine schedule.
