COVID-19 mortality rate in India around 3.3 per cent: Health ministry

New Delhi, Apr 18: The Union Health Ministry on Saturday said the mortality rate for COVID-19 cases in India is around 3.3 per cent, while over 13 per cent patients have recovered so far.

Addressing a daily media briefing about the novel coronavirus situation in the country, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said data indicates that of the people who died due the infection 14.4 per cent were between 0-45 years, 10.3 per cent between 45-60 years, 33.1 per cent between 60-75 years and 42.2 per cent were aged 75 and above.

"We saw that 75.3 per cent deaths were among those aged 60 or above and in 83 per cent cases there were co-morbidities," he said and reiterated that the elderly and those with co-morbid conditions are at high risk.

By Saturday evening, the death toll due to coronavirus infection in India rose to 488, while the number of cases climbed to 14,792, according to data provided by the Centre.

While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 12,289, as many as 2,014 people have been cured of the disease and discharged, and one had migrated, it said. About containment strategies implemented along with the lockdown, Agarwal said field-level actions are fetching positive results in several places.

"A positive trend has been noted in 47 districts of 23 states and Union Territories. Kodaggu in Karnataka is a new district added to this list along with Mahe in Puducherry that has not reported any fresh cases during the last 28 days," the official said.

Twenty-two new districts in 12 states have not reported any fresh case in the last 14 days. These districts include Lakhisarai, Bhagalpur and Gopalganj in Bihar, Udaipur and Dholpur in Rajasthan, Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, Rohtak in Haryana and Vishakhaptnam in Andhra Pradesh, Agarwal said.

He, however, stated that Patna in Bihar, Nadia in West Bengal and Panipat in Haryana where there were no COVID-19 positive cases in the first two weeks, have now reported incidents of the infection.

Highlighting how continued efforts and cluster containment strategies have yielded positive results in Kerala's Kasargod district, the officer said out of 168 COVID-19 cases there, 113 have already been cured.

"Most importantly, due to proper clinical management, not even one infected person died. The remaining 55 active cases are being monitored well."

Talking about the challenges the district faced, Agarwal said it had 15.38 per cent of abroad population.

The third case reported in India in February with a travel history from China was contained quickly. After the return of people from West Asia on March 16 there was a sudden spurt in the number cases. Geographic position of the district also posed a challenge, he said.

"They did monitored home quarantined people using geo-spatial tracking, and implemented break-the-chain campaign to promote social distancing, used drones and incident commanders.

More than 17,300 contacts were traced and quarantined, aggressive and quick testing was done, COVID Care Centres and ICU facilities were set up," Agarwal said.

One major intervention was that all primary and secondary contacts and high-risk cases were quarantined in isolation centres, he said.

Urging people to follow the lockdown and guidelines of social-distancing to contain the spread of the virus, the joint secretary in the health ministry said, "We have to be on continuous vigil to fight this battle."