The Gujarat government on Sunday said existing comorbidities among COVID-19 patients and delay in availing medical treatment are mainly responsible for the high death rate in Ahmedabad and rest of the state.
At 6.22 per cent, Gujarat has the highest death rate of COVID-19 patients in the country while the fatality rate for Ahmedabad stands at even higher at 7.2 per cent, a senior bureaucrat said.
As on Sunday, Gujarat's overall COVID-19 case count mounted to 20,097 with 1,249 deaths so far, including 14,285 cases and 1,015 fatalities from Ahmedabad district.
"84 per cent of the COVID-19 victims in Gujarat had co-morbidities and (also members of) vulnerable groups," state principal secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi told reporters.
Ravi said the death rate is high among patients in vulnerable groups.
"These groups include the people above 65 years of age, children below 10 years and pregnant women. This vulnerable group along with those having co-morbidities are at a high risk," Ravi explained while talking about the high death incidence in Gujarat.
Another reason is late arrival of patients for medical treatment, she said.
"While COVID-19 death rate in the country is 2.8 per cent, the same in Gujarat is double then the national average. The death rate of Gujarat is higher in comparison to all other states," Ravi said.
While the death rate in the UK was 14.17 per cent, it was 14.40 per cent in Italy, 19.13 per cent in France, 5 per cent in the USA and 7.88 per cent in New York, she said.
"The death rate is high in Britain and France but the same is very low in neighbouring Germany. The reason for that is still not known," she said.
Ravi said the state government had taken all necessary steps and is working hard to save every life.
"The government has formed a panel of top private doctors to deal with the pandemic situation. They will submit plans for short term, medium term and long term," she said.
Meanwhile, Dr Dileep Mawlankar, who is one of the members of the expert group of doctors formed by the government, said the only solution to the problem is the development of "herd immunity".
"Early analysis suggests that those cities like Ahmedabad which are facing bad situation due to the pandemic will come out of it fast as the herd immunity develops," Dr Mawlnakar said.
Herd immunity means the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination.
He further said that data for Ahmedabad suggest that areas which were worst affected by coronavirus in the initial stage are now reporting lesser number of cases.
"This means that there is a possibility that herd immunity has developed among all the people living in a particular area," he added.