Karnataka: Urban exodus pushes up cases in 14 green zones

BENGALURU: Movement of people from urban centres like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai to their hometowns/villages in Karnataka has led to a spike in cases in many districts which were coronavirus-free till May. Nearly one and a half months on, about 14 such districts have reported a minimum of 100 cases, indicating there’s a steady shift in Covid-19 infections from urban to rural areas.

As on July 12, Bengaluru accounted for 47.3% of the total 38,843 Covid-19 cases in the state, while 29 other districts together contributed 52.7% or 20,456 cases.

With more people fleeing Bengaluru ahead of Tuesday’s lockdown, infections are expected to spike further. District officials are worried as an increase will make access to healthcare even more challenging.

“We had just two cases till the government decided to open up inter-district and inter-state borders in May. Now, cases have touched the 170-mark and a majority of patients have travel history to big cities,’’ said a senior health official in Kodagu, supporting his claim with data.

Davanagere and Hassan, which also had only a few cases initially, saw a rise after several people from Mumbai and Bengaluru returned. This is true of Chamarajanagar, Chitradurga, Chikkamagaluru, Haveri, Kolar, Koppal, Ramanagara, Raichur, Shivamogga, Udupi and Yadgir.

Dr Ajith G, assistant professor and health expert, said the two-month lockdown had failed. “If proper contact tracing had been done, the problem of locals getting infected would have been checked,” he said.

Some experts believe the pandemic will only accelerate the ongoing shift from Bengaluru to rural areas and also to tier-II cities like Mangaluru, Mysuru and Hubbali-Dharwad, which are densely populated. Dr Ramakrishna, a physician in Chikkamagaluru, said rural outbreaks could be devastating given the inadequate number of doctors. “High levels of co-morbidity and undernutrition along with weak health infrastructure are a recipe for high mortality,” he added.