Odisha Among 9 Indian States Highly Vulnerable To COVID-19: Study

Bhubaneswar: Odisha finds mention among nine states in India that are highly vulnerable to COVID-19.

According to an ecological study published in The Lancet, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha, and Gujarat had a high overall vulnerability (index value more than 0·75). These states also had a high vulnerability.

“The vulnerability index presented in this paper identified a number of vulnerable districts in India, which currently do not have large numbers of COVID-19 cases but could be strongly impacted by the epidemic. Our index aims to help planners and policymakers effectively prioritise regions for resource allocation and adopt risk mitigation strategies for better preparedness and responses to the COVID-19 epidemic,” the report added.

The study is based on 15 indicators across the following five domains: socioeconomic, demographic, housing and hygiene, epidemiological, and health system. “We used a percentile ranking method to compute both domain-specific and overall vulnerability and presented results spatially with a number of positive COVID-19 cases in districts,” it said.

The report further said that COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in India with cases being reported from 627 (98 per cent) of 640 districts. “There is a need to devise a tool for district-level planning and prioritisation and effective allocation of resources,” it added.