New Delhi: There has been a steady decline in India’s COVID-19 fatality rate which now stands at 2.83 per cent, much lower than in countries like the US, the UK, France and Italy, the Union Health Ministry said.
India is the seventh worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of the number of infections, after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy.
While the recovery rate in coronavirus infections is improving and has reached 48.19 per cent in India, there has been steady decline in the case fatality which is now 2.83 per cent, the Health Ministry said.
The recovery rate, now 48.19 per cent, has improved from 11.42 per cent on April 15 to 26.59 per cent on May 3 and to 38.29 per cent on May 18, the Ministry said.
The case fatality rate is 2.83 per cent as against 6.19 per cent globally, the Ministry said.
From 3.3 per cent on April 15, India’s COVID-19 fatality rate declined to 3.25 per cent on May 3 and came down further to 3.15 per cent on May 18, it said.
“A steady decline can be seen in the case fatality rate in the country. The relatively low death rate is attributed to the continued focus on surveillance, timely case identification and clinical management of the cases,” the Ministry said.
“Two specific trends are thus noticed, while the recovery rate is increasing on one hand, case fatality is going down on the other,” it said.
The Ministry also said that the testing capacity has increased in the country through 472 government and 204 private laboratories.
Presenting the case fatality rate for countries having the highest number of deaths, vide WHO situation report-132 dated May 31, the ministry said the US with 1,01,567 deaths has a case fatality rate of 5.92 per cent, while the UK with 38,376 deaths has a case fatality rate of 14.07 per cent.
Italy, Spain, France and Brazil with 33,340, 29,043, 28,717 and 27,878 deaths have a case fatality rate (CFR) of 14.33 pc, 12.12 pc, 19.35 pc and 5.99 pc respectively.
Mexico which has reported 9,415 COVID-19 casualties has a CFR of 11.13 per cent, Germany with 8,500 deaths has a CFR of 4.68 per cent and Canada with 6,996 deaths has a CFR of 7.80 per cent.