Covid-19 Hotspots: These Are The Worst Affected Districts In The Country

As India fights the spread of Covid-19, Maharashtra and Delhi remain at the focus. More than 25,000 members of the Tablighi Jamaat, who have returned from the congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin area, have been quarantined across the country.

The national capital has itself been impacted by the cases arising from the congregation. Districts across the country are trying to get a grip on the primary contacts of these positive cases.

According to this report, the 10 worst districts, including South Delhi, Mumbai and Kasaragod in Kerala, alone account for over 30 per cent of the cases in the country. Below are the nine among them, where the number of Covid-19 cases is the highest or among the highest in different states.

South Delhi (Delhi): the number of cases in Delhi has soared to 320 (as per official figures). A week after the events surrounding the Tablighi Jamaat congregation and the eruption of positive cases in the attendees came to light, Delhi government has come up with a 5-T plan to fight the Covid-19 situation.

The 5Ts stand for "testing, tracing, treatment, team work and tracking and monitoring" of patients. Two hundred people in the Nizamuddin area had to be taken to various hospitals after they showed signs of Covid-19 infection.

One lakh tests to identify Covid hotspots in the national capital were conducted. Phone records of 2,000 attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat will be tracked to locate the areas they visited during their stay in Nizamuddin.

Mumbai (Maharashtra): as the number of Covid-19 positive cases went spiralling beyond 1,000 earlier this week, Mumbai accounted for the maximum number of cases. The number of cases stands at 298.

According to this report, "Mumbai accounts for 63% of cases in the state and 62.5% of deaths". Mumbai police initiated criminal action against 150 attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi's Nizamuddin area for refusing to report their attendance to civic authorities.

Vendors selling fruit and vegetables will be not allowed to enter the 200-plus 'containment zones' — in the city. Civic authorities are working to restrict the movement of people to break the chain as much as possible.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will review the situation after the 21-day countrywide lockdown ends on 14 April to decide whether or not the lockdown should be extended in Mumbai.

Kasaragod (Kerala): last month, Kasaragod came to limelight during Kerala's rising graph of Covid-19. Today, it has the highest number of coronavirus-infected people in the state, where cases stand at 336. Kasaragod, as per this report, accounts for 136 confirmed infections.

This Swarajya report states that owing to the spike in cases, district administration of Dakshina Kannada ordered the halting of vehicular movement between the two destinations last month. Kannur district in Kerala that borders Kasaragod tightened its guard owing to the steep rise in cases in Kasaragod.

Hyderabad (Telangana): cases in Hyderabad continue to soar. Hyderabad reported the highest number of cases at 113 on Tuesday. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is ready to extend the lockdown and is waiting for a nod from the Centre, reports suggest. The state government is expected to get clarity on the number of cases, especially of the Tablighi Jamaat attendees, by 10 April. According to this report, people in the city are taking social distancing for granted.

A case was registered against six nationals of Malaysia, who had come here on a tourist visa in March under Sections of Disaster Management Act, Epidemic Diseases Act, Foreigners Act and Indian Penal Code.

Meanwhile, the rapid increase in Covid-19 cases in the state has made the health department declare around 100 villages and localities as hotspots, according to this report. This means that people here will not be allowed to come out of their houses for 14 days for provisions, which will be provided to them at the doorstep.

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indore (at 110) followed by Bhopal is emerging as the hotspot in the state. The total number of Covid-19 cases here spiked to 173. According to this report, "the case fatality rate in the cleanest city touched 8.6% on Tuesday, arguably the highest for any city in the country, even ahead of the rates in Mumbai and New Delhi which had recorded more than three times the number of cases than Indore."

Chennai (Tamil Nadu): the state is fighting to curb the spread with the total number of cases hitting 690, out of which 637 are of the Tablighi Jamaat cluster as per this report.

Chennai amounts for the highest number of cases (81 until the last update). Greater Chennai Corporation brought under its scanner 3,300 people who had visited Phoenix Mall in Velachery area between 10 March and 17 March. The corporation has initiated a door-to-door surveillance to keep track of Covid-19 cases.

Pune (Maharashtra): until the last update, the state's second largest city's number of Covid 19 cases stood at 62. Authorities have sealed parts of Pune and have set out to survey "thousands of households, suspecting coronavirus infections may have spread to the community in parts of Maharashtra’s second largest city," as per this report.

GB Nagar (Uttar Pradesh): until the last update, the number of Covid 19 cases in the city stood at 55. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had expressed intense displeasure over the Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration's response to Covid-19 spread last month. A company called Cease Fire emerged as the core of the Covid-19 spread in the district and other parts of the state.

Jaipur (Rajasthan): in focus here is a small locality of Jaipur called Ramganj, which has emerged as a major hotspot. The number of cases in Jaipur stands at 54. The Rajasthan government has said it is adopting “ruthless containment’ towards tackling the situation in the area.

Yadadri (Telangana), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Dindigul (Tamil Nadu), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) are districts that may need focus and responding measures from the state authorities in the days to come.