Amravati division accounts for 60% cases, 81% deaths in Vid

Nagpur: Even as the number of Covid-19 cases in Vidarbha is expected to reach 5,000 by the end of first week of July, the distribution of cases is uneven in the region.

A comparison of two revenue divisions shows that Nagpur division, even if bigger in terms of area and population, has contained the spread fairly well than Amravati division.

About 60% Covid-19 cases in Vidarbha are from Amravati revenue division that includes Akola, Washim, Buldhana, Yavatmal and Amravati districts. Of the 152 deaths, 124 are from Amravati division. All districts in Amravati division, except Washim, have more than 200 cases.

Akola, which is the divisional headquarters of public health department for Amravati division, is the worst hit by the pandemic. With 1,536 cases till date, Akola alone accounts for 77 of the 152 deaths in Vidarbha. Amravati is next with 549 cases and 23 deaths.

Yavatmal has 270 cases and 11 deaths, while Buldhana has 130 cases and 11 deaths. Washim is the only district with less than 100 cases in this division. Washim has recorded 97 cases and 2 deaths. All five districts of Amravati division have reported deaths.

On the other hand, Bhandara, Gondia and Chandrapur — three out of six districts in Nagpur division — have recorded no deaths till date. Barring Nagpur, which has 1,472 cases, no district in the division has even 200 cases till date. Even if Nagpur has 25 deaths on its record, 10 of them are from other districts and states.

Wardha also has 3 Covid-19 deaths, but 2 of them are from other state/districts. The only death in Gadchiroli too did not happen in the district. A man from Gadchiroli, who was working in Telanagna, died in Hyderabad during treatment and the district administration included his death in its count as per local regulations.

According to experts, better institutional quarantine network in Nagpur division has resulted in containing the spread.

“Wardha would have been the first in Vidarbha to report Covid-19 cases. The Hindi University here had received 12 students from China in the last week of February when the outbreak had just started. But, we quarantined these students in the university hostel itself and ensured isolation for the next 14 days,” said Wardha collector Vivek Bhimanwar. This gave confidence to the authorities in Wardha which has lowest number of cases in Vidarbha till date.

Testing facilities also played an important role. When the outbreak began, Nagpur was the only place in Vidarbha with testing facilities. By March, Nagpur got testing facilities at five institutions, while Wardha got two. But, all five districts in Amravati division were dependant on Nagpur laboratories for tests till Akola GMCH got its own lab.

Even now, Washim and Buldhana are the only two districts which don’t have their own labs. They rely on Akola GMCH for tests. Whereas in Nagpur division, five districts have their own labs. Nagpur alone has seven government and three private testing facilities due to which the number of tests is high and pendency is low in the division.

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In comparison

Amravati division

Area | 46,090 km²

Population | 2,888,445

Districts| Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Washim, Yavatmal

Nagpur division

Area | 51,336 km²

Population | 10,665,939

Districts | Nagpur, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia, Wardha, Gadchiroli

Cases

4,556 in Vidarbha

2,681 in Amravati division

1,876 in Nagpur division

Deaths

153 in Vidarbha

124 in Amravati division (77 of them in Akola)

29 in Nagpur division (25 of them in Nagpur)