BackFocus on policy gaps as covid toll crosses 100,000
With more than 1,095 deaths registered in the past 24 hours, India’s toll touched 100,271 on Friday
PremiumThe death toll from covid-19 crossed 100,000 in India on Friday, prompting warnings from health experts that the toll may rise manifold unless the government slows the pandemic’s march in a cluster of 10 hardest-hit states.
With more than 1,095 deaths registered in the past 24 hours, India’s toll touched 100,271 on Friday. Around 83.4% of the new deaths reported on Thursday were from 10 states—led by Maharashtra with 394 deaths and followed by Karnataka with 130 deaths. The eight other states are Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala and Chhattisgarh.
Around 76.6% of new active cases—patients who are in care or self-quarantine—are in another cluster of 10 states. Three other states figure here—Assam, Odisha and Telangana, instead of West Bengal, Punjab and Delhi.
Here, too, Maharashtra leads the tally with more than 250,000 active cases, followed by Karnataka with more than 100,000.
At the other end of the scale are 14 states and Union territories that have fewer than 5,000 active cases.
The steady rise in infections and deaths points to a need for urgent policy measures in these 13 states. In Maharashtra, infections have spiked following the increased movement of labour between urban and rural regions in the aftermath of the easing of restrictions.
Rural areas, without the necessary medical infrastructure, have borne the brunt.
“In some ways, we are still early in the pandemic, and unless we take strong measures as individuals and as a collective, this will be the first lakh of many more lakh Indians to perish due to covid-19," said Dr Swapneil Parikh, a Mumbai-based clinical researcher.
On Friday, Maharashtra reported 424 deaths with a case fatality rate of 2.65%. As of 2 October, the state has 260,876 active cases and 37,480 people have died due to covid-19. The high fatality rate prompted the state to change its focus from tackling the spread of infections to bringing down the death rate.
Public health experts have said the increasing death toll in the country is worrying, and much more needs to be done to avert more fatalities.
“Over 100,000 deaths is a matter of concern. However, taking the total tests carried out and test positives, the case fatality remains low in the second-highest populated country in the world," said Dr Jugal Kishore, professor and head, department of community medicine, Safdarjung Hospital. “We could have avoided many deaths by effective case management and timely referral. India still needs improvement in the quality and accessibility of health services."
Across the country, the number of covid-19 cases crossed 6.4 million on Friday. A total of 81,484 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, with Maharashtra leading with more than 16,000 new cases, followed by Karnataka (10,000) and Kerala (8,000).
Meanwhile, 78,877 recoveries have been registered in the past 24 hours in the country, taking the national recovery rate to 83.7%.
“With this, India continues to maintain its global position of being the country with the maximum number of recovered covid-19 patients in the world," the Union health ministry said in a statement.
Kalpana Pathak in Mumbai contributed to the story.
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