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Andhra districts record most tests & highest positivity, 4 Jharkhand districts have highest Rt value

Districts Tracker — a comprehensive look at which districts across states are seeing a wide spread in the Covid-19 infection, and how much each is testing.

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New Delhi: India crossed the 38-lakh mark in coronavirus cases Thursday, with the highest single day spike of 83,883 new infections. Further, India’s R value, which indicates the Covid transmission rate, increased to 1.09.

In ThePrint’s district tracker, we take a look at the regions that are worst affected by the pandemic.

All data is sourced from covidtoday.in.

Data from 78 districts in 17 states have been uploaded to this website. For the purposes of our analysis, we take a look at the top 10 districts.

Our analysis is based on three parameters:

Rt value, known as reproduction number, is indicative of the number of new cases that are expected to emerge from a single case. An R value of less than 1 suggests that the rate of infection is slow since an infected patient will only infect less than one person.

Positivity rate is the percentage of people who are found to be infected by the virus from those who are being tested. This parameter indicates how widespread the disease is.

Tests per million give insight into the amount of testing being conducted in relation to the population of an area.


Also read: Bihar improves testing but still among the lowest 5, Maharashtra’s positivity rate rises


Rt value

Graphic by Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint

Not only does Jharkhand have the highest Rt value in the country, as of 3 September, the state also has the most number of districts among the top 10 high Rt value districts in the country.

Jharkhand has four districts that rank among the top 10 high Rt value districts. Of these, three have Rt values higher than both the national and the state average. Jharkhand’s overall Rt value was recorded at 1.35 while India’s was recorded as 1.09. The four districts in the top 10 are Koderma (1.69), Ramgarh (1.51), Ranchi (1.44) and East Singhbhum (1.29).

Jharkhand is followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra as the two states with the second highest number of districts with high Rt values.

Karnataka which has the fourth highest Rt value in the country at 1.11, has two districts in the top 10 list — Chitradurga (1.56) and Tumakuru (1.55). The Rt value of these two districts is much higher than the overall Rt value of the state.

Maharashtra too has the two districts in the top 10 list — Sangli (1.47) and Nanded (1.37). While Maharashtra’s overall Rt value is at the 12th spot in the country at 1.14, the two districts have recorded higher Rt values.

Chhattisgarh and Assam have one district each among the top 10. Chhattisgarh has the second highest Rt value in the country at 1.32, while Assam is at the fifth spot at 1.28. While Chhattisgarh’s Raipur recorded an Rt value of 1.39, Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan recorded an Rt value of 1.29.

According to experts, Rt value is significant because it shows the states where infections are likely to increase. “High Rt value imply that infections are going to spread more in these districts. By examining the Rt value, we know that infections will increase in these districts and testing needs to be ramped up there,” Dr D. Prabhakaran Reddy from the Public Health Foundation of India told ThePrint.

Positivity rate

Graphic by Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint

As of 3 September, India’s positivity rate was recorded at 7.81 per cent.

Of the 10 districts with the highest positivity rates, all have recorded values higher than the national average.

Andhra Pradesh, which has the second highest caseload in the country, has the most number of districts — five — in the top 10 list, according to the website.

They are East Godavari (16 per cent), Chittoor (13.06 per cent), Anantapur (12.62 per cent), Kurnool (11.77 per cent), and Guntur (11.47 per cent).

The remaining five districts in the top 10 list are from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka.

Karnataka has two districts — Belgavi (11.90 per cent) and Bengaluru Urban (8.76 per cent). Maharashtra also has two districts — Jalgaon (25.35 per cent), Ahmednagar (14.22 per cent)

Tamil Nadu has one district, Chennai (9.46 per cent).

Tests per million

Graphic by Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint

Andhra Pradesh has three districts among in this top 10 list — Kurnool (93,558), Chittoor (74,731) and East Godavari (72,283).

Haryana has two districts — Gurugram (1,11,602) and Faridabad (77,992).

The remaining districts are Gujarat’s Ahmedabad (1,07,599), Karnataka’s Bengaluru Urban (92,731), Odisha’s Ganjam (76,927), Tamil Nadu’s Chennai (2,08,229) and Uttar Pradesh’s Gautambuddh Nagar (1,13,337).

According to Dr Reddy, positivity rate needs to be seen along with the tests per million. “If tests are high and positivity is low, it means we are succeeding in containing the spread. But if tests are low and positivity is high, we need to ramp up testing as the infection is outpacing testing in these areas,” he said.

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