Daily coronavirus cases rising faster in Tier II cities, compounding worry

Lucknow, Bhopal and Mysuru are among India’s Tier II cities recording a faster rise in daily Covid-19 compared to metropolises like Delhi and Mumbai, nationwide data shows.

Metropolises' share in India’s infections has been growing—Mumbai, with 3,779 cases on Sunday, accounted for 8 per cent of the country’s total infections—but Tier II towns are looking at a much faster rise in daily cases.

While day cases in Mumbai increased 3.7-time from 1,014 a fortnight ago (March 8) to 3,779 on March 21, the rise in cities like Lucknow and Bhopal has been much higher.

Lucknow, which clocked 16 daily cases a fortnight ago, on March 21 reported an 8.5-times increase in daily cases to 136. Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal, which a fortnight ago was recording 50 daily infections, on Sunday registered 382 new cases—a 7.6-time rise.

Karnataka’s cities show the trend, too. In Bengaluru, which became the third city in the country to cross 1,000-infections, cases have risen 3.6-times in 15 days. Mysuru witnessed a 10-time increase in daily infections: from seven on March 8 to 70 on March 21. In Udupi district, cases have increased 9.4 times to 170.

Daily cases in Haryana have jumped 3.7 times in the last fortnight, with Karnal and Kurukshetra reporting a 5.1- and 5.7-time increase in daily infections. In Ambala, daily infections have increased 5-times since March 8.

In Gujarat’s Surat, daily infections have increased from 100 to 510 in the last fifteen days.

Tier-II cities may not have a higher incidence of infections, but the sharp rise in daily cases can be a cause of concern.