Covid-19 case-wise, India may have moved up viciously from the 10th position to 7th position within a week since May 25 but the fatality rate at 2.83 per cent of the total death of nearly 5,400 is much lower than the global 6 per cent.
The recovery rate in India also improved to 48.13 per cent on Monday. On May 25, India with 1,38,645 infected cases was at tenth position piping Iran which currently has 1,54,445 cases. On May, 31, India with 1,90,535 cases replaced France to move to 7th position.
A senior official from the Union Health Ministry said that infection and fatality might seemingly be moving at the faster pace in India, but when compared to the other worst-hit countries, it is comparatively low (See Box).
The case fatality rate is 2.83 per cent. On May 18, it was 3.15 per cent while on May 3 , it was 3.25 per cent and on April 15 it was 3.30 per cent.
“A steady decline can be seen in the case fatality rate in the country. The relatively low death rate is attributed to the continued focus on surveillance, timely case identification and clinical management of the cases,” he said.
In comparison, said the official, the USA has 5.92 per cent, UK (14.07 per cent), Italy (14.33 per cent), Spain (12.12 per cent) and other around eight other developed nations where case fatality is comparatively higher than India.
“Through a graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach, we are taking several steps along with the States/UTs for prevention, containment and management of Covid-19.
These are being regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level,” he added. The official also said that two specific trends are being noticed: while the recovery rate is increasing on one hand, case fatality is going down on the other.
A total of 91,818 patients have been cured of the disease, with recovery rate at 48.19 per cent amongst Covid-19 patients.
The testing capacity has increased in the country through 472 Government and 204 private laboratories (total 676 laboratories). Cumulatively, 38,37,207 samples have been tested so far for the infection.