Daily recovery rate has been more than the daily confirmed Covid-19 positive cases in the country.
New Delhi: With an increasing number of recoveries and one of the lowest death rates in the world with respect to Covid-19 infection, India seems to be moving towards being a much “safer” place in the coming days, says epidemiologists and doctors.
The daily recovery rate in India has been more than the daily confirmed Covid-19 positive cases in the country. Over the last one week, 1,26,398 people have recovered from Covid-19 in India, while Covid-19 confirmed cases in India have been about 1,03,159 during the same period.
Since 30 November, total confirmed Covid-19 positive cases have not been more than 39,000 cases from across the country, while the recovery rate of patients affected with the virus has been more than 40,000 since the same time period.
The Covid-19 death rate in India is also one of the lowest in the world. India has a total of 1,39,102 registered Covid-19 deaths as against 95,64,565 confirmed Covid-19 positive cases till date in the country.
The death rate for India is as low as 1.5%, while more developed countries like the United Kingdom and the US have death rates over 2%. The UK has a death rate of about 3.5%, while the US has registered a death rate of 2%. Countries like Mexico have one of the highest death rates in the world as the country has been recording a death rate of 9.49%.
Italy has recorded a death rate of 3.47%, while for Canada, the death rate is 3.14%.
Doctors and epidemiologists The Sunday Guardian spoke to have said that the increasing recovery rate and low death rate in India is possibly because of the BCG vaccination that most Indians have received in their childhood, since they believe that the BCG vaccination has provided some sort of an immunity towards the virus to reduce its virulence among Indians. Many doctors have also said that the large number of young population in India is also one of the reasons for the low mortality rate in India.
Some doctors treating Covid-19 patients across different hospitals that this correspondent spoke to from time to time have added that the therapeutics treatment which has come up in the last few months, has also been instrumental in reducing the mortality rate and increasing the recovery rate in India.
Dr Jayprakash Muliyil, one of the most renowned epidemiologists in India, is also of the opinion that the decreasing number of cases across India indicates the country’s major cities approaching “herd immunity” level against the virus.
In epidemiology, “herd immunity” means that a significant number of the population in the country has already been infected with the virus and that a large number of the population has reached a level of immunity against infectious diseases.
Dr Muliyil told The Sunday Guardian, “When the proportion of the susceptible population comes down, the rate of infection would also come down since the virus is not finding new people to infect, so the transmission would also be low and this is perhaps what is being witnessed and thus the low number of cases. Most of the transmission is happening in the urban areas compared to the rural areas and that is due to factors of sparse population etc. So, if we look at the data from the cities and the urban areas, the trend can be seen that we are slowly approaching herd immunity, baring a few big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and some parts of Haryana etc. Herd immunity is achieved when at least 50% of the population has developed antibodies of the virus and once this herd immunity is achieved, things can become better.”