COVID-19 fatality rate is 2.6 and rapidly coming down: Health Ministry

The fatality rate due to COVID-19 in India is currently at 2.6 per cent and is coming down rapidly, according to the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday.

The Union Health Ministry, in the press briefing held in New Delhi on Tuesday, said that the fatality rate in India is much lower than compared to other countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The national fatality rate is 2.6 and it is rapidly coming down. Compared to the global COVID case fatality rate it is much lower, and in some states, it is significantly lower than the national rate," Rajesh Bhushan, Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Ministry of Health said.

"For those states which have higher fatality rates, we have started an intervention which is now two weeks old. Every week on Tuesday and Friday, a group of doctors from AIIMS through teleconsultation and video conferencing, engage the ICU doctors of treating (COVID) hospitals from various states and try to resolve the problems they are facing in saving critically ill patients," Bhushan added.

The OSD in the Health Ministry said that a teleconsultation was underway today also in which doctors from AIIMS were talking to doctors in three hospitals from Assam, four from Kerala, two in Andhra Pradesh, one from Karnataka, two from Bihar and one of West Bengal.

The official asserted that there was a need to increase the testing in the country

"WHO says if you are testing 140 people per day, per 10 lakhs population, that would be indicative of comprehensive testing. There are 22 states who test 140 or over tests per day, per million population. We advise the states, union territories to increase testing to meet WHO criteria," Bhushan said.

He also said that despite being the second-most populous country of the world, the daily growth rate of new COVID-19 cases in India has been coming down continuously from around 38.2 percent in March to 3.24 percent on July 12.

Earlier today, India's COVID-19 count crossed nine lakh mark as 28,498 new coronavirus cases were reported.

( With inputs from ANI )