To flatten curve, 27 dists crucial

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 27

As the national Covid case load today rose to 28,380 and 886 deaths were reported, the government identified 27 districts that are emerging as the hottest red zones across the country and decided to push containment efforts in these areas actively.

Top public health experts have said India’s ability to completely flatten the disease curve would depend on its success in these 27 districts.

The districts spread across 11 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and UP, account for the highest disease load in the respective states.

NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant today said, “In these 27 high case load districts of India, the battle against Covid is being fought through contact tracing, testing, isolation and treatment.

We must win in these districts. Our ability to completely flatten the curve depends on our rapid success in these districts.” Of the 27 districts, the maximum — six — are in Rajasthan and include Jaipur, Ahmed, Bharatpur, Jodhpur, Kota and Tonk.

Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara; Kerala’s Kasargod and Kannur; MP’s Indore, Bhopal; Maharashtra’s Mumbai, Pune and Thane are part of these 27 high focus hotspots.

Other districts are Guntur and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh; Hyderabad in Telangana; Agra, Gautam Budh Nagar and Lucknow in UP; Chennai, Coimbatore and Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu; Bengaluru in Karnataka and Delhi state. In UP, the maximum cases are in Agra (22.5%).

Meanwhile, 16 districts as of today are among the areas that haven’t reported an infection in 28 days. Punjab’s SBS Nagar and UP’s Pilibhit fell out of this green zone category today by reporting new Covid cases after a 28 day lull.

Across India today, 85 districts across 25 states and UTs haven’t reported any new case in 14 days.

Meanwhile in a positive indicator today, the single-day rise in cases was lower than the previous two days. Additional cases today were 1,463 as against 1,975 yesterday.

Additional deaths were 52 and additional recoveries 557 in a day taking the national cure rate to 22.4 per cent. This rate is steadily improving.

The analysis today also showed that while 12 days ago, 4.7 per cent of all those who were tested were found Covid positive, today with an average 40,000 tests a day, the positivity rate has come to 4.1 per cent.

The hotspot areas

6 Rajasthan: Jaipur, Ahmed, Bharatpur, Jodhpur, Kota, Tonk

3 Gujarat: Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara; Maharashtra: Mumbai, Pune, Thane; UP: Agra, Gautam Budh Nagar, Lucknow; Tamil Nadu: Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruppur

2 Andhra Pradesh: Guntur, Kurnool; Kerala: Kasargod, Kannur; MP: Indore, Bhopal

1Telangana : Hyderabad;
   Karnataka: B’luru; Delhi