Centre identifies 145 new COVID hotspots to contain spread of virus

The Centre has identified 145 new districts, mostly rural ones, that have reported COVID-19 infections over the past three weeks and warned that they could emerge as “epicentres” of the disease if effective containment measures are not undertaken.

In a presentation made to representatives of various states on Thursday (May 28), cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba claimed eastern India was likely to be the next hotspot for COVID-19, after the inflow of lakhs of migrant workers from numerous states severely affected by COVID-19.

The cabinet secretary said 12 states, including Bihar, West Bengal, and Odisha in eastern India which had not reported many cases earlier, have witnessed a spike in positive cases over the last three weeks. Other states such as Tripura and Manipur, too, which had reported COVID cases in single digits earlier, have confirmed an increase in cases now.

The health ministry said bigger states such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh accounted for a major portion of India’s 1,65,000 cases (approximately) until Thursday (May 28) since there has been a rapid increase in infections over in the past fortnight.

Hindustan Times quoted the Union health ministry as saying that the bigger states remained the main contributors to the surge but that states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha saw a sharp increase in cases.

The ministry has identified the 145 districts, half of which are in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh. According to the presentation, 2,147 active cases in these districts account for 2.5% of the total cases in India. Of these, 26 districts have more than 20 active cases.

State governments have been instructed to “proactively” conduct containment activities in these districts to ensure that new epicentres do not emerge.

Bihar health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh said the government is concerned as migrant workers account for around two-thirds of about 3,200 cases in the state.

Jharkhand minister Rameshwar Oran said only a few cases have been reported from outside quarantine centres, which shows the virus has not spread. “We have been able to control the spread even though a large number of workers returned from infected places,” Hindustan Times quoted him as saying.

Odisha’s additional chief secretary, Pradipta Kishore Mohapatra, said the state’s Covid-19 recovery rate of 41% was better than the national average of 42%. “None of the new Covid patients is in ICU [intensive care units] or [on] ventilator [support] and we are confident of overcoming the crisis once all migrant workers return,” he said, according to Hindustan Times.

The health ministry also expressed concern over an increase in the Covid-19 confirmation rate, or the positives for total tests done, in some states such as Delhi, Maharashtra and Bihar.

Most states have recorded a fall in the Covid-19 fatality rate even as it increased in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat between May 18 and May 25, according to the ministry. The fatality rate has declined from 8.5% to 7.1% in West Bengal but was remains the highest for any major state.

Former Indian Medical Association president Dr K K Agarwal said the fatality and the confirmation rates in India were still less than the western countries. “Everybody expected the cases to increase; it does not mean the lockdown failed. The lockdown has helped us to contain the spread.”