Case fatality rate: Seven Kerala districts among India’s best 10

KOCHI: Seven districts in the state are among India's 10 best performing districts in Covid-19 control, estimated on the basis of case fatality rate (CFR) or proportion of deaths to cases in a particular period of time. Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram, however, are ranked 28th and 19th respectively in the analysis of rates as on September 5.
Mahendragarh in Haryana has the lowest CFR of 0.049% in India.Kottayam ranks second in the list with a CFR of 0.064%, followed by Pathanamthitta (0.077%), Palakkad (0.081%), Idukki (0.161%), Alappuzha (0.223%) and Malappuram (0.253%). Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh ranks eighth with a CFR of 0.293%, followed by Wayanad (0.3%) and Purulia in West Bengal (0.305%), according to the study done by Project Jeevan Raksha -- a publicprivate partnership initiative of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and Proxima.
Mortality rate and CFR are being increasingly scrutinized across the world to determine the true impact of the pandemic.
Health authorities said the state's overall CFR of 0.4% is among the lowest in the country despite the surge in cases.
‘Reverse quarantine will remain the key’
We have been able to control deaths with timely interventions like the break the chain campaign and early case detection. As we move ahead, reverse quarantine will remain the key,” said Dr Santosh Kumar S S of Thiruvananthapuram medical college who was part of the team that went to Mumbai to treat Covid patients.
However, the state could lose its tag of one of the best performing states in Covid control with the rise in cases. “We need to measure the state’s performance holistically. All top ten districts should have been from Kerala. It is important for authorities to analyze how some districts slip in terms of performance,” said Mysore Sanjeev, convenor, Project Jeevan Raksha.
In August first week, almost all districts in Kerala featured among the top 20 performing districts in terms of CFR, with nine districts among the top ten. The situation had changed a month later, with Kannur (CFR 0.734%) dropping from 19th position in August to 28th and Thiruvananthapuram (0.627%) from the fifth position in August to 19th.
Thrissur (0.34%) ranks 11th, Kozhikode (0.479%) 14th, Kollam (0.487%) 15th, Ernakulam (0.522%) 16th and Kasaragod (0.526%) 17th in the list.