Present coronavirus pandemic panicked the entire globe at the beginning of the year, especially in February – March period. COVID-19 was spreading like floodwater, doctors didn’t know how to treat patients. There was no effective treatment. The only thing doctors could do is to wait so that our immune system can itself defeat the virus.
But now doctors are better prepared, they know how to support COVID-19 patients, they have more ventilators and ICU beds to support critical patients. Ventilators and other life support equipment give patients more time to fight coronavirus. In most cases, patient’s immune system beats the virus.
Thanks to blood-thinning drugs, better oxygen support, the COVID-19 death rate has fallen significantly. Moreover, cheap steroid like dexamethasone has been proven effective to treat COVID-19 patients. Few more drugs have been proven effective.
Researchers from the Institute for Health Matrix and Evaluation (IHME) of the University of Washington have said, risk of COVID-19 death has fallen one third after last April. At the beginning of the pandemic, the death rate in the US was 0.9 percent and now that has reduced to 0.6 percent. According to the researchers of the Institute for Health Matrix and Evaluation, the infection fatality rate is gradually going down.
Several companies have already claimed that they have developed vaccines that are more than 90 percent effective. But upcoming winter which has already seen a sharp rise in infection is a concern for health experts.
