India’s Covid-19 fatality rate is surprisingly low, but can’t say the reason behind it: ICMR chief

New Delhi: India’s Coronavirus related death rate is surprisingly very low and one of the lowest in the world. There are several hypothesis on this, but we cannot say anything on any factor, said the head of India’s top medical research body.

“In terms of fatality rate, we have surprisingly found a low fatality rate in India, which is very good. There are several hypotheses on this, but we can’t say anything clearly on any factor. Hope it continues” Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR said during the daily briefing of the central government on COVID-19.

While India’s total number of cases climbed to 1.45 lakh by Tuesday morning, the death toll rose to 4167 indicating a death rate of 2.87 per cent. Meanwhile, with over 60 thousand recoveries, India’s recovery rate has improved further to 41.61 per cent.

India has reported about 0.3 deaths per lakh population, while the global rate is 4.4 deaths per lakh population, which is amongst the lowest in the world. This has been due to lockdown, timely identification and management of COVID19 cases, said Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health.