Rudraprayag, Pauri & Chamoli districts under spell of the disease
In what can be termed as a disturbing trend, the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) has entered the mountainous districts of the state in a major way. Though the contagion of the virus is showing clear signs of slowing down in the plain districts of the state from last many days, the cases of the disease are increasing alarmingly in the districts of Rudraprayag, Pauri and Chamoli.
In fact the chiefly mountainous district of Pauri has now raced to second place in the list of active cases of the disease. What is causing concern is the fact that a small district like Rudraprayag has reported as many as 264 cases in the last seven days. This district has a population of only 2.47 lakh which means that it has had a staggering 107 cases per lakh in the last seven days. In Pauri 54 cases per lakh of population were reported while Chamoli had 54 cases per lakh during this period. A total of 2499 cases were reported in the state during this period (October 30 to November 5). The data released by the Social Development for Communities Foundation (SDCF) shows that Uttarakhand had 22 cases of Covid-19 per lakh of population during the last seven days.
It clearly shows that Rudraprayag has five times more cases than the state per lakh of population while Pauri has 2.5 times more cases as compared with the average of the state. With only eight cases per lakh of population during the last seven days Udham Singh Nagar is at the bottom of this table. This district has a population of 20.11 lakh and in the last seven days only 166 cases were reported here. The founder of SDCF, Anoop Nautiyal said that the state government should put extra focus on the hill districts since the cases of Covid-19 are rising rapidly there. He added that the effort should be made to allot urgent resource allocation and mobilisation for mountainous districts.
Saturday, 07 November 2020 | PNS | Dehradun
