Coronavirus data drive: Infections spreading to rural and semiurban areas

India adding close to 65,000 Covid-19 cases daily and registering 1,000 deaths is quite worrying, but what is even more disconcerting is that infections are no longer limited to the cities. An analysis of districts shows that share of rural and semi-urban centres has increased over the past month. The division between rural, semi-urban and urban is done based on Census data.

A district with less than 20% population in cities is defined as rural, with in 20-30% as semi-urban and 30% and above as urban. The share of rural and semi-urban centres has increased from 25% on July 13 to 34.5% on August 13. In terms, of daily infections, rural and semi-urban areas now account for nearly half of the infections and a third of deaths.

The spread can also be gauged from the number of districts affected by the coronavirus. India had only 33 districts with over 5,000 cases on July 13; this number has increased to 94 on August 13. Regions with over 100 deaths has increased from 36 to 80.