A health worker in personal protective equipment (PPE) checks the temperature of a resident with an electronic thermometer during a check up campaign for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Mumbai, India, July 13, 2020. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
At least 70 per cent of Covid-19 deaths in Maharashtra are of people above the age of 40 years, according to an age and gender-wise analysis of Covid-19 deaths by the government. The analysis also indicates that more men are affected by coronavirus than women – of the 10,150 deaths, the number of male casualties was 6,618 – twice that of women (3,368).
As on Monday, Maharashtra has reported more than 2.6 lakh cases and 10,482 deaths.
Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said the age and sex wise analysis of 10,150 Covid-19 deaths was completed recently. The analysis shows that at least 2,770 people were between 51 and 60 years of age when they succumbed to coronavirus, while another 2,769 were in the 61-70 age group when they succumbed. At least 1,481 people between 41 and 50 years of age died of coronavirus-related complications. All these deaths account for at least 70 per cent of the total casualties in the state.
The analysis shows that 19 deaths were of children below 10 years of age, 48 deaths were of adolescents between 11 and 20 years and 223 people were between 21 and 30 years of age when they died of coronavirus. According to the data, there were 599 people in the age group of 31-40 years who died of Covid-19, while 1,508 people were in the age group of 71-80 years and 508 in the 81-90 age group who died of Covid-19. At least 49 people who succumbed to the infection were between 91 and 100 years old.
Awate said that the age specific mortality rate was higher among people between 51 and 70 years of age. For instance, as many as 44,217 people in the 51-60 age group were infected with Covid-19 and of these, 2,770 people succumbed while in the 61-70 years age group, 27,254 were affected. Of these, 2,700 patients died. Again in the 41-50 years age group, there were 46,945 people who were infected of which 1,481 people died.
The percentage-wise involvement of other age groups is minimal, Awate said. Under 10 years of age, at least 9,685 children tested positive of which 19 died. The cause of their death was also related to underlying medical conditions, Awate added.
The data also shows that there are 176 deaths where the age of the person has not been recorded while in 164 cases, the victim’s sex is yet to be reported. “These details are eventually sent by each district health authority and all the deaths are accounted for,” Awate said.
Presently, there are more than one lakh active cases in the state and the recovery rate is 55.38 per cent, while the case fatality rate is 4.02 per cent. According to state health data, Mumbai is nearing the one lakh cases mark, while Pune has reported more than 40,000 cases and Thane over 63,000 cases. Nashik, Jalgaon and Aurangabad have also reported more than 6,000 cases each while Wardha is the only district so far that has reported 34 cases and one death. Chandrapur has not reported a Covid-19 death so far.