Bengaluru tops COVID-19 deaths per million, followed by Mysuru and DK

There are six positive patients for every square kilometre in Karnataka, according to Jeevan Raksha

For representational purpose only.

Accounting for 5,382 of the total 13,759 COVID-19 deaths in Karnataka till April 21, Bengaluru Urban figures at the top of the mortality chart in the State with 506 deaths per million (DPM) population followed by Mysuru, Dakshina Kannada, and Dharwad at 341, 322 and 321 DPM, respectively.

Bengaluru Urban has topped in mortality not only in absolute numbers, but also in DPM population based on Unique Identification Authority of India’s projected population figures as on December 31, 2020. An analysis of DPM population is considered to give a picture of the mortality in proportion to the population in a specific geographic region.

 

Besides, Bengaluru Urban also accounts for 63% deaths in Karnataka during the four-week period between March 24 and April 21 of the second wave. Out of the 1,301 deaths occurring during the four-week period, a whopping 819, or almost two thirds, took place in Bengaluru against the 482 in the rest of the State.

At the bottom of the DPM chart is Chitradurga with 38 DPM followed by Yadgir at 53, besides Belagavi and Bagalkot both of which have a DPM of 67.

Despite its high numbers, the 28-day moving growth rate (MGR) of mortality in Bengaluru Urban at 18 was lesser than Bengaluru Rural’s 23, Bidar’s 22 and Kalaburagi’s 19.

Sharing the data with The Hindu , Jeevan Raksha, a public private partnership initiative by Proxima, a management consulting firm, with technical support and guidance of Public Health Foundation of India, pointed out that for every square kilometre in Karnataka, there are six COVID-19 positive patients.

“When we separate Bengaluru Urban and look at the rest of Karnataka, a cluster of districts, then the number of COVID-19 cases per kilometre drops to three. This is because in Bengaluru Urban, COVID-19 positive patient density is 300 per square kilometre. In a pandemic environment, positivity is bound to be high in a densely-populated city,” said Jeevan Raksha convenor Mysore Sanjeev.

“Poor medical infrastructure and insufficient competent medical professionals to treat the critical patients could be one of the reasons for higher mortality,” said Mr. Sanjeev.

Bengaluru added 1.62 lakh new COVID-19 cases during the study period, which took the positive cases per million in Bengaluru Urban from 39,590 to 51,300, while leading to a 10-fold increase in number of active cases from 11,520 to 1,13,374.

Gadag and Davangere districts recorded no deaths during the four-week period, though the second wave is considered to be more virulent. Also, the number of deaths were in single digits in as many as 14 districts and zero in two others during the four-week study period.