Nagaland among 5 states with high COVID fatality ratio

Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 19

As per COVID-19 data released by the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Health & Family Welfare, on September 18, Nagaland has the highest case fatality ratio (CFR) in the northeastern region of India. CFR or death rate is defined as deaths per every hundred confirmed cases.

A further look of all India data (as on September 19) pointed to Nagaland being among the five states with the highest CFR in the country alongwith Punjab, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Goa. As per covid19india.org, Nagaland’s CFR was at par with Maharashtra’s. (See table 1)

In terms of case incidence, the state was in the ‘green zone’ at 2.2 percent sample positivity rate. The top five states with the highest positivity rate (past 7 days average) were Kerala- 20.3 percent, Mizoram- 17.3 percent, Manipur- 8.4 percent, Meghalaya- 6.3 percent and Sikkim- 6.4 percent. The country average was 2.3 percent.

The caseload or active cases, as on September 19, in Kerala was 1,73,678. Mizoram had 13,814 cases, Manipur- 2189, Meghalaya- 1891 and Sikkim- 713. Country-wide, the top five states with the most active cases were Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. (See table 2)

In the northeast, Mizoram had the highest number of active cases, followed by Assam, which had 3716. Arunachal Pradesh had 422, Tripura- 367 and Nagaland- 484.  

Conversely, the more populous states were comfortably placed in comparison. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, had 191 active cases, Gujarat- 143, Rajasthan- 101, Madhya Pradesh- 97 and Bihar- 64.

Lowest testing rate
When it came to testing rate, Nagaland continued to fare poorly. As per the data, Nagaland’s testing rate was 165 per thousand population, the lowest or rather the slowest in the country. Only the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli had a lower testing rate at 75 per thousand but the data was as on 11 months ago.

The Union Territories of Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry and had the highest testing rates at 3648, 1328 and 1155 tests per thousand, respectively.

Among the states, Delhi had the highest testing rate at 1357 per thousand, followed by Mizoram- 839 per thousand, Arunachal Pradesh- 740 per thousand, Telangana- 693 per thousand and Uttarakhand- 646 per thousand.