Data: The COVID-19 situation in five south Indian cities

Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Vishakapatnam have witnessed a surge in cases in recent weeks, while Chennai has managed to improve its recovery rate.
Data: The COVID-19 situation in five south Indian cities
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The spread of the novel coronavirus has been largely concentrated in India’s cities. TNM looks at the COVID-19 situation in five cities in the south. The week-on-week data from June 18 until July 9 was analysed, and here’s what we found.   

Bengaluru 

 The city of Bengaluru, which had received praise for keeping COVID-19 numbers under control until June has seen a surge of infections in recent weeks. As of July 9, Bengaluru Urban has 13,882 COVID-19 cases.

Data shows Bengaluru Urban’s positivity rate increase over the last four weeks, rising from 1.33% on June 18 to 9.09% on July 9. However, testing has also increased with the increase in cases. While it was averaging around 2500 tests between June 18 and June 25, the average number of samples tested has increased to just over 5200 between July 2 and July 9.   

The recent surge in cases has pushed down Bengaluru’s recovery rate. The number of recovered patients stands at 2834 or 20.41% as against 44.41% on June 18.   

Although the number of deaths stands at 178 as of July 9, the case fatality rate offers a sign of hope. Bengaluru’s case fatality rate has seen a steady fall over the last four weeks - from a high of 5.87% it has plunged to 1.28% as of July 9.   

Chennai  

One of the biggest hotspots in Tamil Nadu and in the country, Chennai as of July 9 has a total of 73,728 COVID-19 cases, and has recorded 1169 deaths. The district was in strict lockdown between June 19 and July 5 and this has resulted in some significant changes in Chennai's numbers. 

For starters, Chennai’s recovery rate has seen a steady rise over the past four weeks. From 53.10% on June 18, Chennai’s discharge rate climbed to 58.73% the following week. As of July 9, over 70% of COVID-19 patients in the district have recovered. 

 The 17-day lockdown has also allowed officials to bring down the daily cases. While the daily cases had steadily increased from June 18 and touched a peak of over 2000 cases on July 2, the effects of the lockdown have been witnessed in Chennai in recent days. As of July 9, the district’s daily cases have fallen to around 1200 cases. With the district opening up once again, the COVID-19 cases are likely to go up in the next few weeks. 

Chennai’s case fatality rate, however, remains a cause for concern for authorities. The district’s CFR has seen a marginal increase week-on-week from June 18 when it was 1.35% to 1.58% as of July 9.    

Hyderabad

With the Telangana government’s bulletins offering very little in terms of data, presenting a true picture of Hyderabad’s COVID-19 situation is a challenge. Neither the Telangana government nor the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) provides data on the total case count in Hyderabad. The state government also does not give a district-wise break up of deaths. 

Based on the little data available, it is evident that Hyderabad’s COVID-19 cases have been growing for the past four weeks. GHMC saw a whopping 203% increase in cases from June 18 when it reported 302 persons tested positive for the coronavirus to 918 cases on July 9.  

Thiruvananthapuram 

In just one week, Thiruvananthapuram witnessed a 124% increase in COVID-19 cases. As of July 9, Kerala’s capital has recorded a total of 505 COVID-19 cases. 

Data shows that from reporting single digit infections from June 18, Thiruvananthapuram saw 95 cases on July 9 alone. Officials have attributed Thiruvananthapuram’s spike in cases to Poonthura, a coastal neighbourhood in the capital. At least 77 out of the 95 cases on Thursday were from Poonthura, with officials calling the Kerala coastal suburb a ‘super spreading’ area.

Thiruvananthapuram’s recent spike has resulted in its recovery numbers decreasing in the last four weeks. With active cases rising, the recovery rate declined from 77.14% on June 18 to 39% on July 9. 

However, Thiruvananthapuram has managed to keep fatalities due to COVID-19 low.  The district has recorded five deaths so far - the lowest in absolute number among the southern cities. Its case fatality rate stands at 0.99% as of July 9. 

Thiruvananthapuram is presently under a week-long ‘triple lockdown’, with officials hoping to contain the spread of the virus.  

Total positive cases in four cities across four weeks  

Visakhapatnam

As of July 9, Visakhapatnam has 1191 positive patients. In fact, the district has seen a 109% increase in the past week. The daily case count had touched triple digits on four occasions this past week, with 208 cases on July 9 alone — the highest number on a single day thus far.

The number of deaths in Visakhapatnam has also increased. While the number  of deaths in the district stood at two on June 25, it has increased to 10 on July 10. Seven of these fatalities came in the last week alone. However, the case fatality rate is the lowest among the south cities, at 0.83%. 

The recovery rate stands at 45.92%, a 9 percentage point decrease since the previous week. 

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