Coronavirus mortality rate dips in Mumbai

Notwithstanding the rise in Covid-19 cases in Mumbai, the mortality rate has reduced, a top official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said on Friday.

“Although Mumbai has been reporting a higher number of Covid-19 cases, the mortality rate in the city has come down over the last two months. The Case Fatality Rate, i.e. death due to Covid-19 as a percentage of total reported cases, has come down to 4.5% as against 5.8% during June,” BMC’s Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health) Suresh Kakani said.

He has attributed this dip to better monitoring as a part of ‘Mission Save Lives’ that the BMC is implementing.

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Kakani elaborated that under Mission Save Lives, a separate list of critical patients in every hospital was prepared and their treatment was monitored continuously.

“Every day, consultations were held with doctors twice through video conference, expert advice was made available through Task Force members and continuous video surveillance of serious cases was carried out. As part of the project, advanced ventilators were made available, along with the services of trained technicians, which played a key role in bringing down the mortality rate” he added.

Kakani further said that although Mumbai is reporting a higher number of Covid-19 cases, the situation in the city is under control. He said that with the unlocking process now on, most of the service and business establishments except cinema halls, restaurants as well as schools and colleges have opened up and there is increased movement of people.

He further informed that BMC has increased testing by 90% and they are in the process of scaling it up even further.

Kakani assured that bed availability in Mumbai is satisfactory as nearly 5,500 out of 17,500 Covid-19 beds are vacant. He further said that nearly 10% of 8,800 oxygen beds and 1,100 ventilator beds are vacant in Mumbai.

He asserted that BMC has successfully brought down the curve in slums of Mumbai, which had posed serious challenges in the starting months. “Presently 70% of all the reported cases are coming from apartment residents,” he said.