Battle shifting as Covid-19 threat stalks rural India
Over half the new cases in August come from 584 non-urban districts, reveals data
NEW DELHI: More than half of all Covid-19 cases recorded in August came from 584 districts that are classified as “mostly rural” or “entirely rural”, reflecting the spread of the coronavirus disease from the large urban centres into the Indian hinterland where health care challenges, from testing to treatment, are much more significant.
The trend is very different from that seen in the initial months of the pandemic, when the cases were largely in the urban areas, especially the three metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
This Hindustan Times analysis is based on district-level data by How India Lives, which is available till August 24, although even a cursory look at the HT dashboard suggests that, if anything, this trend has been strengthening for weeks. The front lines of India’s fight against the viral disease have clearly moved.
Experts said the lack of adequate health infrastructure in villages will be a major challenge. “The first challenge that villages will likely face is of testing. Most of the RT-PCR labs are currently located in big cities or district headquarters, and are very rare if one looks for them at the subdistrict level. There is also the issue of the lack of medical equipment and physicians. Machines like pulse oximeters and radiology facilities such as good quality chest X-rays, which are crucial tools to monitor the health of Covid patients, are not as easily found in rural areas,” said Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director, Delhi’s Maulana Azad Medical College.
To be sure, there is a counter view as well: “There are reports of cases coming from rural areas, but the advantage that we have there is that population density is low because of which cases can be identified, isolated, and treated early. In these areas, surveillance can be far better and also compliance, and that is instrumental in controlling spread of the disease effectively,” says Dr VK Paul, member, Niti Aayog, who also chairs one of the National Task Forces on Covid-19 management.
“Having said that, we have to be careful and concentrate on rural areas as some of the villages may suffer from lack of adequate health infrastructure to manage positive cases,” he added.
The analysis also shows that few of India’s 734 districts are untouched by Covid-19: More than 700 districts and the national capital have reported cases so far.