India's Covid fatality rate low

­New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday said that the recovery rate of COVID-19 cases in India has been improving considerably while the fatality rate is among the lowest in the world. "A total of 60,490 patients have recovered so far from COVID-19. The recovery rate continues to improve and presently it is 41.61 percent. The fatality rate is one among the lowest in the world, and it is at 2.87 percent now," said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, at a press conference. Agarwal further said that COVID-19 cases in India were being reported at a much lower rate than the world average.

I"If 69.9 cases per lakh population have been reported across the world, in India the number is near 10.7 cases per lakh population," he said, adding that this comparison was based on absolute numbers.

Stating that lockdown, social distancing, and other guidelines had helped India to fare better than other countries in handling the crisis, Agarwal added, "Spain has 504 cases per lakh population, Belgium 499 per lakh, America has 486 cases per lakh, while in the lower end of the spectrum too Mexico, has 52.2 cases per lakh population."

The Joint Secretary said that India's fatality rate due to COVID-19 was much less than other countries with a high number of cases. "While every death reported is painful, the fatality rate (due to COVID-19) has been observed overall around the world at 6.4 percent, therefore, India has one of the lowest fatality rates amongst the countries with a high number of cases," he said.