What it means for saving lives

When the pandemic began, both urban and rural areas had a high case fatality rate (CFR), with urban areas having a much higher CFR owing to their higher load of cases per million population. With knowledge about possible treatments increasing, CFR is now lower than the early days of the pandemic in both urban and rural areas. The gap between the CFR in these two areas is now largely a reflection of their healthcare infrastructure and the load they are facing in terms of cases per million. For instance, rural areas had a higher CFR towards the end of the first wave this year, when cases were low everywhere. This is possibly a reflection of their poorer healthcare infra. As cases have risen in April and May, the CFR in urban areas has caught up with that in rural areas despite the former’s access to better resources.