There is a clear regional difference in the spread of the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Uttarakhand. The plain districts of the State account for 78 per cent of total cases of the disease.
Apart from more prevalence, the districts of Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar, Dehradun and Nainital have high infection rate (IR) of the disease. The IR is the percentage of the number of total samples tested to that of those found positive for Covid-19. The health department of Uttarakhand has tested a total of 325591 swab samples till September 27 and out of them a total of 17277 have been found positive which means that the State has an IR of 5.31 per cent.
However there is wide disparity in the district wise IR. Nainital with 2458 positive cases from 28082 samples has the highest IR of 8.75 per cent in the State. Haridwar has IR of 7.72 per cent while with an IR of 6.86 per cent Udham Singh Nagar district is at third position in terms of IR.
Dehradun district has an IR of 6.09 per cent. Here 3452 patients have been found positive from among the 56675 samples tested. Rudraprayag district has the lowest IR of 1.80 per cent.
Here 196 samples were found positive out of 10859 samples tested. Tehri has an IR of 4.51 per cent, Uttarkashi 4.35 per cent, Bageshwar 2.54 per cent, Almora 2.31 per cent, Pauri 2.24 per cent, Pithoragarh 2.07 per cent, Chamoli 2.06 per cent and Champawat 2.02 per cent. In what can be termed as the cause of concern, the IR is increasing steadily during the last one month.
The data of the Social Development for Communities Foundation (SDCF) shows that on July 27, the IR of Uttarakhand was 4.62 percent which on August 27 climbed to 5.31 per cent.
The founder of the SDCF, Anoop Nautiyal said that the government should focus on the four plain districts and deploy resources there to keep the IR down.