SECOND WAVE...

The only months in which rural areas contributed more cases than urban areas before this was last year, between August and October, and then again in December.

To be sure, in terms of new cases reported per month per million population, urban areas have always stayed ahead of rural areas, and are still ahead currently.

In April, urban areas reported 4.9 times the cases per million population compared to rural areas. This number for May was 3.8 until May 4.

This could, however, be on account of lack of access to testing in rural areas.

For the purpose of this analysis, India’s 700-plus districts have been classified into three categories on the basis of rural population share: urban districts (less than 40% rural population), rural districts (more than 60% rural population, and mixed districts (40%-60% rural population).

District-level data on Covid-19 cases were compiled by How India Lives.