Chamarajnagar, which managed to remain COVID-19 free for over three months after the pandemic broke out in Karnataka, has been ranked sixth among 253 districts in 12 mega States witnessing the shortest doubling period of active COVID-19 cases.
Active cases grew from 110 on July 18 to 290 on August 1 and then to 446 on August 15. Subsequently, the active cases in the district touched 360 on September 12 which further increased to 1,134 on October 3. The growth rate here is 215%.
Of the total 1,16,153 active cases in Karnataka, 1,161 are from Chamarajnagar as on October 7. Apart from 83 COVID-19 deaths, this district also has 11 of the 19 non-COVID-19 deaths in the State - also the highest in the State. With the first case detected here as late as June 9, this district so far had 4,771 confirmed cases till date, according to the State health bulletin.
The first COVID-19 death in this district occurred on July 12 and the deaths per million (DPM) here has touched 77, above the national DPM of 74, according to an analysis by Project Jeevan Raksha, a public-private partnership initiative involving Public Health Foundation of India, Indian Medical Association and Proxima, a management consulting firm.
The three-week mortality Moving Growth Rate (MGR) of Chamarajanagar is 52%, much above the national and State average MGR of 31%, stated the analysis.
From three deaths on July 18, deaths shot up to 29 on August 15. However, the next day the number reduced to 21 as eight were classified as non-COVID-19 deaths. This number touched 33 on August 29. Nine more deaths were added till September 5 and in a month this number almost doubled to 83.
Mysore Sanjeev, convenor of Project Jeevan Raksha, said Karnataka had 97,815 total active cases on September 12 which went up to 1,12,783 on October 3. “The growth rate is 15.3% in the State. Whereas, Chamarajanagar had 360 active cases on September 12 which increased to 1,134 on October 3. The growth rate here is 215%. In case, if Chamarajanagar had maintained state active case MGR, then the active cases on October 3 should have been 415, whereas it has shot up to 1,134.”
