Covid fatality rate can fall below 1 per cent with focused efforts: PM Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the target of bringing the Covid-19 fatality rate below 1% can be achieved through focused efforts and exhorted chief ministers of the 10 worst-hit states to work toward helping India win its battle against the pandemic.

The country’s fatality rate due to Covid-19 has just dipped below 2% with total deaths at about 46,000.

Modi said the average fatality rate in India is already among the lowest in the world and it’s a matter of satisfaction that the level has been dropping continuously. He spoke to the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh as well as the deputy chief minister of Karnataka and said almost 80% of active cases and 82% of deaths are from these 10 states.


“If the virus is defeated in these 10 states, the entire country will emerge victorious in the battle against Covid-19,” he told them. He asked Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Gujarat and West Bengal to step up testing further, saying these states were seeing high positivity rates. Some chief ministers asked for a special financial grant from the Centre to combat Covid-19 and guidance for conducting sero surveillance.

Modi said the percentage of active cases is declining and the recovery rate has increased to almost 70% while tests have gone up to almost 700,000 daily. “This shows our efforts have been successful. Due to this, confidence and trust among people have increased and the atmosphere of fear has reduced,” he said.

Modi also recounted home minister Amit Shah’s experience in preparing a roadmap for tackling the pandemic in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) and stressed that a bleak situation could be turned around in 7-10 days with systematic efforts.

“Delhi and some neighbouring districts in UP and Haryana had become a big cause for worry once,” he said. “Delhi government made an announcement that made one think that a major crisis could emerge. I took a meeting and created a team under Amit Shah and we could get the results that we wanted.”

Modi said segregation of containment zones and focus on 100% screening, especially of those in the high-risk category, formed the core of the strategy in Delhi-NCR. “Results of these steps are there for all to see,” Modi said.

“Better management in hospitals and increasing ICU beds also proved helpful.” Modi said tracing all the contacts of an infected person within 72 hours was vital. “As per experts, if cases are identified in the initial 72 hours, then virus spread can be slowed,” Modi said.

“There is a need to trace and test all those who had come in contact with an infected person in 72 hours. This should be followed like a mantra, with the same earnestness as washing hands, maintaining do-gaz doori and wearing masks.” He said people had become more aware of hygiene norms, as a result of which the home quarantine strategy had been effective.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said he wouldn’t allow a second wave of Covid-19 infections. Those cured of Covid-19 are contracting other diseases and such patients need to be monitored even after discharge, he said. He spoke of the state government’s plans to build hospitals to handle communicable diseases in every district.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao suggested the establishment of an integrated medical infrastructure, saying states and the Centre need to work together to increase medical facilities and the Prime Minister should take the initiative. Tamil Nadu’s chief minister EK Palaniswami said the state has one of the lowest fatality rates in the country at 1.6% and a high recovery rate of 81% but asked the Centre to fund 50% of Rs 5 crore needed for daily testing from the PM-CARES fund. He also asked for a special grant of `9,000 crore to fight Covid-19 and the goods and services tax (GST) compensation for April-June to be released early.