Sruthi Vibhavari
Hyderabad: A new challenge faces the health department as the COVID-19 cases see a spike in the rural Telangana, districts that were under the green zone until last month. Telangana crossed a grim milestone of 50,000 cases recently, with as many as 1,610 cases registered on Monday (July 28). The cumulative deaths came to 480.
While the GHMC still remains on the top registering 531 new cases, the rest 1,079 cases are registered outside Hyderabad indicating the spread in other urban and rural areas. Apart from districts that envelop Hyderabad registering over 100 cases each, Karimnagar, Peddapalli and Nizamabad — which predominantly contain rural clusters, registered around 50 new cases each.
The significant rise in the cases in the rural belt is attributed to the employees and labourers moving back to their native villages. A look into the demographic and health care domain across rural districts of Telangana indicates a major discrepancy and vulnerability to the virus, compared to cities and other urban clusters.
Officials in the health care suggest that the government shift its focus from cities to district headquarters, towns, and villages to curb the further spread.