India Coronavirus Dispatch: States' economic revival tied to Covid control

Teachers in Karnataka school reach students' homes for lessons, 59% spike in cases among Assam health workers, Pune pips Mumbai on Covid numbers--news on how the country is dealing with the pandemic

Economy and recovery: A heat map created by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, shows that economic indicators are faring better in states that better control on cases and recoveries. Economic recovery is linked to a dozen or so states, which also account for 85 per cent of the caseload. Two of the country’s biggest growth drivers — Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu — make up for 40 per cent of the cases. Electricity consumption has improved from May’s 103 billion units to 106 billion units. The strongest recovery in power consumption was seen in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Chhattisgarh. E-way bills also saw an uptick, suggesting improvement in intra- and inter-state transport. MGNREGA, meanwhile, doubled YoY. However, Maharashtra saw a fall in MGNREGA numbers in June, both on a YoY and sequential basis. Maharashtra is one of the Covid-19 hotspots in the country. Read more here.

Community learning: Teachers at a government school in rural Karnataka decided that if students can't come to school then the school should go to them. The teachers themselves started visiting the students. This started the trend of open learning in places of community gathering in some villages. School authorities say they have asked teachers to classify students into three categories: those without access to any technology, those who have phones but don’t have access to the internet and those with access to everything. Teachers have now made it a point to visit students belonging to the first two categories at least once a week to ensure they continue learning. Read more here.

Surat’s migrant woes: So far, only 10 per cent of Surat’s migrant workforce has returned to the city after the Coronavirus-induced lockdown. The manufacturing hub had seen an exodus of over 1.8 million migrant workers since the lockdown was announced. Despite the Gujarat Chief Minister assurances that migrants are returning, ground realities remain starkly different. Availability of transport is the biggest issue facing the workers who often have to end up paying very high amounts to return. Others point toward a totally different problem: factories themselves are shut. The ones that are not shut are running at 20 per cent production levels. Fears of the virus, too, are weighing heavy on most. Read more here.

Receding eco footprint: The pandemic has caused Earth Overshoot Day 2020 to be delayed by three weeks this year compared to the last one. Earth Overshoot Day marks that day in the year when humanity has exhausted ‘nature’s budget’ for the year. This implies that human beings consumed 9.3 per cent lesser resources compared to last year. “This shift in the year-to-year date of Earth Overshoot Day represents the greatest ever single-year shift since the beginning of global overshoot in the early 1970s,” says the report. Read more here.

In Numbers

Assam’s health workers: From July to August, the number of health workers in Assam infected by Covid-19 shot up from 720 to 1,143 — a rise of 59 per cent. Of the total 1,143, 298 are doctors. The worst-hit, however, are those classified as ‘other health workers’ which includes ambulance drivers, technicians and ASHA workers. In July, the Indian Medical Association’s Assam chapter had even called for an enquiry into the state’s high rate of infection within the medical fraternity. Of the 298 doctors affected, 43% are from Kamrup Metro. Testimonies suggest that the state’s health infrastructure is overburdened with several asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients also being admitted. Read more here.

Pune’s worries: Mumbai is no longer leading in terms of cases in Maharashtra. That dubious distinction is now held by Pune. Mumbai has 128,000 cases with 1,000-1,200 additions daily, while Pune has reached 130,000 cases after detecting almost 3,200 new cases on Sunday. Delhi has 152,000 cases but is adding around 1,000 cases everyday. At the current rate, Pune will soon overtake the national capital. Pune was one of the earliest locations to report cases in the country but Mumbai had always had greater number of cases. Read more here.

Comment

Shutting healthcare an overreaction: A disease can be considered to be a major public health issue only if it’s causing 5% or more of all deaths in a population, says this health expert. In India, the top 10 causes of deaths range from heart disease to diarrhoea. However, in response to the pandemic, most of India’s non-coronavirus healthcare services were shut. This, the writers, argue was not only unwarranted but also dangerous. They further calculate the proportionality of Covid-19 deaths as compared to total number of deaths. The calculations further show that in terms of proportional mortality, India has very low figures at 1.3 per cent. The highest is in the US, with 13 per cent. Read more here.