Surge in rural cases is the major contributor in country’s COVID count

NEW DELHI: As the total COVID positive cases of the country reached the 4 million mark, the surge in COVID cases in rural India seems to be the major contributor. The infection is spreading at a great pace in the Indian hinterlands as Unlock 4.0 kicks in. Although there are no recorded numbers about the increase in cases of rural areas, there are two figures which can prove this. Firstly, around 65 per cent of the population in the country lives in rural areas and secondly, more than 700 districts of the country are affected with COVID, putting almost 94 per cent of the population at risk.

A postman in the village of Chinnambavi, Telangana, aided in the spread of coronavirus in the area which has till now been immune from the outside world. In Rajewadi village, Pune, a person, who visited the neighboring temple died of COVID and the count of cases there has reached from 0 to almost 100 since then. These type of events shed light on the effect of Unlock 4.0 in the increase of COVID positive cases in India. Dr Subroto Kundu, Former Medical Officer, Safdurjung Hospital, New Delhi, said that many reported cases are people from outside Delhi who have travelled back owing to the opening of public places and offices.

Dr Amar Fettle, nodal officer of Health in Kerala, said that one of the reason is that the protocols of social distancing and mask are taken for granted and new cases are being reported in the new and lesser urban areas. Lack of proper COVID health facilities and major infrastructure is also the prime reason of increasing mortality and infection rate. Just 37 per cent of the doctors are in rural areas and as of 2018, around 61 per cent of the Public Health Centres (PHCs) in the country had one doctor each while close to 7.7 per cent have none at all.

Numbers show a disturbing picture as of now, however, the only silver lining is that our fatality rate of 1.7 per cent and recovery rate of 77.7 per cent are among best in the world.