A little more than 200 days after the first coronavirus-related fatality was recorded in India, the national death toll crossed the 100,000 marks on Friday.
At least one fatality has been reported in 717 of the country’s 734 districts during this time, while the 20 worst-hit districts account for more than 40 per cent of all reported fatalities in the country.
As India became the third nation in the world to cross this grim threshold, more deaths have been recorded by only the United States and Brazil, a look at three reasons that show how the virus has ravaged the districts of the nation.
The area that has been most seriously ravaged by the virus is the southern part of the world. A substantial proportion of the country’s deaths (37%) came from just one province, Maharashtra.
Despite the recent spike in cases in the two states, the northern plains, particularly Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, have seen relatively lower deaths, pushing total deaths in these states to 910 and 5,917, meanwhile.
A recent rise in Punjab has put it among the countries with a 3 per cent worst-case fatality rate (CFR) against the 1.56 per cent national average.
Just 20 of India’s 734 districts are liable until Friday night for nearly 45% of all fatalities recorded in the country. Of these 20 districts, 13 are from Maharashtra, the country’s worst-hit state for the disease.
In just one city, Mumbai, almost one out of every ten deaths occurred due to Covid-19 in the country.
Bengaluru (3,024 dead), Chennai (3,238 deaths), and Kolkata (1,737) are the other major cities in the worst-hit district list. Till Friday, Delhi had recorded 5,438 fatalities, but the city is divided into 11 revenue districts, so it does not appear on this list.
Hyderabad and Guwahati are other prominent cities that are not on this list since their respective state governments do not issue a district-wise division of cases and deaths.
As an urban phenomenon, the Covid-19 pandemic began but is now spreading in rural areas at a faster pace. However, though 49 per cent of all cases have been registered by 584 of India’s districts that are classified as ‘mostly rural’ or ‘entirely rural, They account for just 38% of all casualties, meaning they have done better than their urban counterparts in saving lives.
Meanwhile,’ entirely urban’ and ‘mostly urban’ districts have registered 35 per cent of instances, but so far have 47 per cent of all fatalities in the country.
Depending on the proportion of the rural population, districts are categorised into five categories: entirely urban (under 20% of the local community), mostly urban (20%-40% rural), mixed (40%-60% of rural), mostly rural (60%-80% rural) and entirely rural (over 80% rural).
