Those above 60 account for 50% of Covid deaths, shows govt data Centre Says No Under-Reporting Of Mortalities

Those above 60 account for 50% of Covid deaths, shows govt data

Centre Says No Under-Reporting Of Mortalities

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi  05.08.2020

: Even as deaths due to Covid-19 continue to be higher in the elderly with those above 60 accounting for 50% of total mortalities, those in the relatively younger age band of 45-60 years are also appearing increasingly vulnerable — accounting for 37% of fatalities. The percentage for this group is up from 32% a month ago, official data showed.

While releasing data regarding age profiles in mortalities, the government refuted concerns related to under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths as “mere conjecture” not backed by evidence, saying that there were clear protocols on how fatalities due to the disease are to be recorded.

Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the health ministry, at a very early stage, had issued clear guidelines as some states were not clear initially whether Covid-19 deaths of patients with co-morbidities should be reported as such. “In the guidelines, we made it clear that all such deaths of people with co-morbidity and who were Covid-positive should be counted as Covid-19 deaths,” Bhushan said.

He said specific states and urban areas like Delhi, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, with high case loads and a large number of deaths, had better death registration averages than the the national figure even in a non-Covid scenario indicating a robust system of reporting deaths.

The death registration average in Maharashtra is 93%, whereas it is 100% in Delhi and Tamil Nadu, against a national average of 80%. Besides, while the proportion of medically certified deaths at the national level to all registered deaths is 22%, it is 67% in Maharashtra, 69% in Delhi and 85% in Tamil Nadu.

“In such a scenario, to say that deaths are not reported is baseless,” Bhushan said. India’s Covid-19 fatality rate is progressively declining. At present, the death rate is 2.10% with 38,938 deaths recorded so far.

While half of the deaths have taken place among people aged 60 years and above, those in the younger age band of 26-44 years and 45-60 years accounted for 11% and 37%, respectively.

While the government has made slight changes to the age matrix as was reported on July 9, a comparison shows the percentage of deaths in the younger age groups remains largely the same with those below 17 years and people aged 18-25 years reporting 1% deaths in each category. In July, these age groups were classified as less than 14 years accounting for 1% and those between 15 to 29 years accounting for 3% deaths.

The latest data showed 68% of Covid-19 deaths were in male patients, whereas 32% were among females, broadly in line with the global scenario.

The number of recovered Covid-19 patients in India is increasing daily and is now over double the number of active cases.