From Saitual in Mizoram to Idduki in Kerala and Kalahandi in Odisha to Latur in Maharashtra, the coronavirus has now penetrated deep into rural India, covering more than 90 per cent of the terrain and 712 out of 736 districts across the country.
The number of affected district paints a grim scenario, underlying the fact that the virus is fast traversing rural landscape and villages where health infrastructure are woefully inadequate and little can be done by way of contact tracing or testing.
Echoing this sentiment, IMA Hospital Board of India Chairman Dr VK Monga said on Sunday, “The virus is now spreading to rural areas. This is a bad sign.” The virus has spread so rapidly during the last month that almost every State and Union Territory has started recording cases and fatalities on a daily basis. Just about a month ago, three of the worst-affected States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi accounted for more than 65 per cent of the total cases and deaths. The picture has changed dramatically.
“On Saturday out of 37,000 confirmed cases these three States accounted for only 14,630 (around 40 per cent) cases. A month ago, precisely to the date on June 18, these three States contributed 9,100 cases out of 14,740 that is around 62 per cent.
In case of Maharashtra, all 36 districts are now in the grip of the virus. Mumbai has so far recorded 1,00,350 cases and 5,650 deaths, followed by Thane 73,000 cases and 1,976 deaths, while Pune district has 51,575 cases and 1,314 deaths.
The least affected districts are Bhandara (179 cases), Gadchiroli (173 cases and Wardha 66 cases).
Similarly, 37 out of 38 districts of Tamil Nadu are now battling with coronavirus. Chennai is the worst affected with 84,050 cases and 1,404 deaths, followed by Chengalpattu (9,360 cases ), Thiruvallur (8,702 cases), and Madurai ( 8,044 cases).
Karnataka, which had just around 8,000 cases a month ago, has seen six-fold spike during this period and the virus has found its way into all the 30 districts of the State.
The State was touted as a model in controlling the growth of Covid-19 but a reckless violation of social distancing norms in wedding, temples, rath yatras and birthday bash has turned it into a dangerous hotspot.
Three of the worst-affected Karnataka districts are: Bengaluru Urban 29,619 cases and 631 deaths; Dakshina Kannada 3,294 cases and 60 deaths, Kalaburagi 2,674 cases, and 43 deaths, and; Ballari 2,355 cases and 57 deaths.
All the 33 districts of Gujarat are now under the sway of the virus with Surat recording 9,409 cases and 246 deaths followed by Vadodara 3,508 cases and 53 deaths, and Gandhinagar 1,061 cases and 36 deaths.
In the case of Uttar Pradesh, which has a miserable track record of testing, the virus has spread to all the 75 districts.
Gautam Buddha Nagar has the highest number of 4,024 cases and 38 deaths whereas Ghaziabad has 3,902 cases and 63 deaths. Lucknow, Kanpur, and Meerut follow them in that order with 3,610, 2,217, and 1,807 cases respectively.
All the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh are now in the grip of coronavirus with Kurnail and East Godavari recording 5,688 and 5,499 cases and 116 and 46 deaths respectively.
Andhra neighbour, Telangana is also witnessing a late daily surge and swift spread of cases. All the 33 districts are affected by the virus which has spread with remarkable speed across the State, going from 6,027 cases a month ago to 43,000 on July 18.
Twenty districts of West Bengal, 32 of Rajasthan, 22 of Haryana, 34 of Assam, 52 of Madhya Pradesh, 31 of Odisha, 20 of Jammu & Kashmir, 14 of Kerala, 23 of Punjab, 25 of Jharkhand, 28 of Chhattisgarh, 13 of Uttarakhand, two of Goa, eight of Tripura, four of Puducherry, 17 of Manipur, two of Ladakh, three of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, 20 of Arunachal, 11 of Meghalaya, 10 of Nagaland and one of Andaman & Nicobar are also affected by the virus.
The spread of coronavirus in rural India could lead to greater fatalities because of wretched health facilities. This is one of the biggest causes of concern at this moment when India’s mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world.
