India Coronavirus Dispatch: Pandemic may persist longer in rural areas

Cases shoot up in Rajkot, MP's immunisation programme impacted, and urban middle class incomes hit--news on how the country is dealing with the pandemic

Disparty in numbers: Gujarat’s Rajkot has been witnessing a steady surge in cases. The state’s Principal Secretary (Health) explained the disparity in actual number of deaths in Covid hospitals and the official Covid-19 death count by attributing deaths to non-Covid reasons. The state government has now moved in a team of 15 doctors from other cities to Rajkot. Since June, there have been 308 deaths in Covid-designated hospitals in the area but the official figure shows only 89 deaths. Overall there has been a sharp rise in cases in the municipal corporation area and in the rural parts of Rajkot.