Covid-19 cases in urban areas of Maharashtra have increased again, compared to rural areas.
The proportion of cases from the urban areas of the state rose to 57.98% on October 18 from 51.6% a month ago. Urban areas, which are governed by 27 municipal corporations, have registered a significant proportion of cases since the first Covid-19 case was registered in the state on March 9. Urban areas accounted for 94.2% of the total cases (35,058) on June 18, although the proportion continued to decrease, reaching 71.19% on July 18, 61.22% on August 18 and 51 , 59% on September 18. At the same time, rural areas registered a rebound in the number of cases. In September, urban areas were on par with rural areas in terms of cases.
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Maharashtra’s population is distributed almost equally in urban and rural areas and the ratio of urban-rural population during the 2011 census was 45:55.
However, this month, cases in urban areas have started to increase compared to rural areas of the state. “During the first months of the outbreak, most of the cases were from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) comprising 11 large cities. Gradually, the virus began to spread to other large cities, such as Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad as people began to move from places where more cases were recorded. In July, the rural part of the state witnessed a massive spread. In some districts, such as Jalgaon and Ahmednagar, the cases were more in rural areas than in cities. Rural areas are now at their peak and have started to move towards the baseline of the infection curve, ”said a health department official.
Dr. Gautam Bhansali, Consultant Physician, said: “The peak in rural areas is over and cases are expected to continue to decline. Whereas mobility in urban areas has increased after unblocking and reverse migration to cities has started. There is also greater reliance on the infrastructure of cities that has led to more overcrowding there. On the contrary, in rural areas, there is fear among people of infection due to poor health facilities ”.
However, state authorities have expressed concern about complacency among the people of the cities. “Citizens are not carefully following the protocol of social distancing and personal hygiene. This is also one reason for the high number of RMM cases, which has risen to 35% of state cases from 25% in recent months, ”said an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
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