The COVID-19 pandemic is considered as the most critical global health disaster of the century and the greatest challenge that the human civilization faced since the 2nd World War. It has rapidly spread around the world, posing enormous health, economic, environmental and social challenges to the whole human population

1. Presented By:
Dr. Mohd Akhter Ali
Assistant Professor
Dept of Geography
University College of Science
Osmania University, Hyderabad- Telangana
Mobile: - +917680989610
Email: drmohdakhterali@gmail.com
Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=_KbMpuQAAAAJ&hl=en
Academai:https://osmania.academia.edu/MohdAkhterAli

2. Introduction
 The COVID-19 pandemic is considered as the most
critical global health disaster of the century and the
greatest challenge that the human civilization faced
since the 2nd World War.
 It has rapidly spread around the world, posing
enormous health, economic, environmental and social
challenges to the whole human population.

3.  The corona virus outbreak is ruthlessly
disrupting the global economy. Almost all
the nations are struggling to slow down the
transmission of the disease by testing &
treating patients, quarantining suspected
persons through contact tracing, restricting
large gatherings, maintaining complete or
partial lock down etc.

4. Objective
 The paper aim of our paper is to put
emphasis on the factors of spread of Corona
virus in the rural and semi-urban areas.

5. Methodology
 For the analysing of this paper we relied
mostly on secondary data from various
government reports and authentic websites
and for graphical representation we used
ArcMap 10.5.

6. Discussion
 India has the highest number of fresh
infections in the world with over 90,000
fresh COVID-19 cases every day for last 5-6
days now, it is number three in terms of
total cases.
 at is even more worrisome is that the
infections move rapidly towards rural and
semi-urban areas.

7.  India has overtaken Brazil and become
the second-worst affected country in the
world by the coronavirus pandemic, with
more than 5.7 million cases.
 Covid-19 had mostly remained in India’s
cities, but the disease is now spreading to
rural India – an area with over 850 million
people and far worse healthcare.

8. The reason for this shift appears to be
migrant workers who have been
returning to their villages since
lockdown was eased at the end of June.
The medical response to stop the
spread and treat those infected has
been inadequate,

9.  Rural and semi-urban centres accounted for
70 percent (43% & 24%) of fresh infections
on August 22, or nearly double their share
compared with a month ago.
 This is worrying as the health facilities are
not as good as urban areas in rural and semi-
urban regions.
 It is noteworthy fact that only a third of
India's physicians are in rural areas.

10.  More than half of all Covid-19 cases recorded in
August came from 584 districts that are classified as
“mostly rural” or “entirely rural”, reflecting the spread
of the coronavirus disease from the large urban centres
into the Indian hinterland where health care
challenges, from testing to treatment, are much more
significant.
 The trend is very different from that seen in the initial
months of the pandemic, when the cases were largely
in the urban areas, especially the three metropolitan
cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai,hyderabad .

11.  This situation is worsened by the stigma and
misinformation that surrounds Covid-19 in
India.
 Fear of the virus has led to widespread
mistrust of trained healthcare professionals.
 Indian doctors have reported being evicted
from rented accommodation and others
have been violently targeted in some slum
communities.

12.  The misconception is that health professionals are
sources of infection and that they will force people
to be removed from their families into quarantine
centres. These centres are viewed with suspicion
and fear.
 The stigmatisation of those infected or suspected
to have Covid-19 is likely to result in unreported
cases.
 And, indeed, some reports suggest that this is
taking place. This means the situation can only get
worse for Covid-19 victims and is undermining
efforts to mitigate the pandemic.

13.  In the long term, it threatens India’s
recovery and progress, with the potential for
many people to become debilitated with
illness and economic hardship.
 In rural India, basic preventative measures
of washing hands pose challenges because
of the lack of access to clean running water.

14. Where is the rural spread most intense?
States P1(0-1 million) P2(1-2 million) P3(2-4 million)
Assam 41 71 70
West Bengal 15 17 29
Odisha 44 42 56
U.P 34 45 46
M.P 16 26 27
Maharashtra 6 11 16
T.N 6 10 11
A.P 9 9 12
Gujarat 5 8 8

15. States P1(0-1 million) P2(1-2 million) P3(2-4 million)
Bihar 82 79 83
Punjab 5 2 3
Kerala 12 11 7
Rajasthan 40 40 32
Chhattisgarh 50 31 37
Uttarakhand 33 17 20
Jharkhand 56 49 41
Haryana 6 4 8
Karnataka 6 6 8

16. COVID-19 spread in rural areas(in %)
41
15
44
34
16
6 6
9
5
71
17
42
45
26
11 10 9 8
70
29
56
46
27
16
11 12
8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
P1(0-1 million)
P2(1-2 million)
P3(2-4 million)

17. COVID-19 spread in rural areas(in %)
82
5
12
40
50
33
56
6 6
79
2
11
40
31
17
49
4 6
83
3
7
32
37
20
41
8 8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
P1(0-1 million)
P2(1-2 million)
P3(2-4 million)

18.  The tables depict new cases recorded in rural
districts as a % share of all cases in the State, in P1,
P2, and P3.
 For instance, in Assam, 41% of the State’s cases in
P1 were recorded in rural districts; 71% in P2; 70%
in P3.
 In Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and
Madhya Pradesh, the % share of cases in rural
districts increased the most between P1 (0 to 1
million cases) and P3 (2 million to 4 million).
 In States such as Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and
Chhattisgarh, rural cases decreased.

26. What is the impact of the spread?
 The health infrastructure is not equally spread
between rural and urban India.
 While more than 65% of India’s population resides
in the rural areas (World Bank estimate), about
65% of all government hospital beds are in urban
India.
 The clear rural-urban divide is visible in many such
indicators.

27.  According to NSS Report, 85.9% of rural
population was not covered by insurance in
FY18,as compared to 80.9% among the urban
population.
 20% of all doctors in india are serving in the
rural parts.
 37% of government hospital beds in india are
in rural areas.

28. Conclusion
 The situation in India has highlighted the weaknesses
of public healthcare provision.
 India requires more resources to expand the pool of
trained doctors accessible to its majority rural
population an
 Perhaps making careful use of informal health
practitioners could be one way to do this. While the
treatment they provide is often unsafe, most are
usually trusted.

29. References
1. Ali, M. A., Kamraju, M., & ANJUM.A. (2020). A Socio-Economic Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic On Women: Case
Study Of Hyderabad City. Balaji Publications, ISBN: 978-93-85756-99-3
2. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). (n.d.). Retrieved August 13, 2020, from
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus 2019
3. Kamraju, M., Ali, M. A., & Wani, M. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on Industries. AGRICULTURE & FOOD: E-
NEWSLETTER e-ISSN: 2581 8317, 2(7), 19–21.
4. Kamraju, M., Ali, M. A., & Wani, M. (2020). An Analysis Of Covid-19 Lockdown 5.0 Unlock 1.0, India. International
Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management (IJSREM), ISSN NO: 2582 3930, 04(06), 1–7.
5. N. (n.d.). Download reports: Ministry of statistics and program Implementation: Government of india. Retrieved
August 13, 2020, from http://mospi.nic.in/download-reports
6. G. (2020, August 13). #TelanganaFightsCorona (covid-19) - government of Telangana. Retrieved August 14, 2020,
from https://covid19.telangana.gov.in/
7. Tiwari, M. (2021, January 18). Why India should TRAIN village health providers to FIGHT CORONAVIRUS.
Retrieved February 13, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/why-india-should-train-village-health-providers-
to-fight-coronavirus-144376

30. Thank you