Odisha among nine states most vulnerable to COVID-19: Lancet

BHUBANESWAR: Even as Odisha battles a surge in caseload, a latest study by Lancet has put it in a group of nine states which it says are highly vulnerable to Covid-19.

Large states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Gujarat - apart from Odisha - have high overall vulnerability, valued more than 0.75 on a scale of 1, the paper said.

As on Sunday, Odisha has reported 17,437 cases of which over 10,000 cases have come in last 20 days. Ganjam district with a tally of 5,537 accounts for more than 31 per cent of caseload.

The ecological study by the international journal reveals that these states could be strongly impacted by the pandemic.

The researcher duo Rajib Acharya and Akash Porwal calculated a composite index of vulnerability at both state and district levels based on 15 indicators.

The indicators were spread over five domains - socioeconomic, demographic, housing and hygiene, epidemiological, and health system. The states were found to have had high vulnerability according to most of the five domains too.

Odisha’s overall vulnerability index stood at 0.8, compared to 0.829 by Maharashtra and West Bengal.

It scored 0.97 in terms of vulnerability due to housing and hygiene condition and 0.68 in socioeconomic category.

The state’s vulnerability index due to non-availability of health care is 0.37 and epidemiological vulnerability is 0.65.

The paper said that though it did not intend not to predict the risk of infection for a district or a state, it observed similarities between vulnerability and the current concentration of Covid-19 cases at the state level.

The index looked at vulnerable districts across the country which currently do not have large numbers of Covid cases but could be strongly impacted by the epidemic, the paper said.

“Our index aims to help planners and policy makers effectively prioritise regions for resource allocation and adopt risk mitigation strategies for better preparedness and responses to the Covid-19 epidemic,” the researchers said.

The objective of mapping the vulnerability, the paper said, is to provide a tool to identify districts vulnerable to consequences of the Covid-19 infection, including spread, morbidity and fatality besides the social and economic consequences.

The domain-specific and overall vulnerability index can also be combined with other available information including disease transmission, case fatality rate, proportion of cases requiring hospitalisation, intensive care unit admissions or ventilator support to heighten preparedness of a district as well as planning and executing the response.

“The vulnerability index and data on migration might help the states prepare for and better mitigate the increasing threat of virus spreading in their districts,” the report added.