Covid-19: More deaths, Telangana’s mortality rate spikes

HYDERABAD: Telangana has catapulted to the fourth spot in Covid-19 mortality rate in the country. Only Gujarat, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh stand above Telangana in the high mortality rate (HMR) in coronavirus positive (confirmed) cases.
Thanks to the sudden surge in the number of Covid-19 cases (5,675 as on June 17) after easing of lockdown guidelines and sharp increase in casualties (192 as on June 17), the state has leapfrogged the HMR charts in the last few days, officials said. The state’s mortality rate at 3.84% is higher than the country’s average of 2.87%.
As per the data available with the Union ministry of health and family welfare, only Gujarat (6.28%), West Bengal (4.33%) and MP (4.20%) have higher mortality rates than Telangana. A senior health official admitted that the state has a higher mortality rate. “We are conducting Covid tests on symptomatic patients. Of late, the death toll among the confirmed positive cases has been high,” he said.
According to the statistics of the Union ministry of health, though Delhi and Maharashtra have been recording a large number of positive cases and deaths, the mortality rate is less when compared to Telangana which is recording a higher mortality rate in confirmed cases. Delhi’s mortality rate is 3.26% with 1,271 deaths and Maharashtra’s is 3.66% with 3,830 deaths. Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh is one of the few states which recorded the lowest mortality rate at 1.43%.
In the last couple of weeks, Telangana has been recording positive cases in excess of 200 every day and deaths in double digits. With criticism mounting, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said his government would conduct 50,000 tests in 30 assembly constituencies in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Sangareddy districts. The CM even claimed the government has been handling the coronavirus pandemic way better than several other states.
The three states of Gujarat, West Bengal and MP have been conducting more Covid tests than Telangana. West Bengal conducted 3.24 lakh tests in the last couple of months whereas Telangana has been cagey on the number of tests done so far.
So much so, it has not even furnished details on the tests for a million population and positivity rate to the Centre, sources said.
On the recovery percentage of total positive cases, Telangana has 49.65% recovery. As many as 13 states have a better recovery rate among patients infected with coronavirus. States like Punjab and Rajasthan have 75% recovery, while Uttar Pradesh 60% and AP has 53.90% recovery.
“The state government is taking measures to combat the pandemic. As per the ICMR survey, there is no community transmission in Telangana, which is a huge relief,” a senior government official said.