Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic, from its beginning in India on 30 January 2020, has caused over 3.7 million cases of illness and claimed over 66 thousand deaths as of 1 September2020. The large metropolitan cities have been the major hotspots of COVID-19 pandemic. The peculiar urbanisation patterns are crucial in spreading COVID-19 in India. This study attempts to highlight how urbanisation patterns increase the vulnerability of COVID-19 spread in India. The higher density, urban sprawl and associated intra-urban commuting, large slum population, inadequate water, sanitation and housing conditions along with homelessness are found to catalyse the vulnerability of COVID-19 spread in urban areas. The existing public health infrastructure in the country is found to be inadequate with respect to the increasing demand. Efforts to contain the spread are being made; nonetheless, the rapid increase in the cases of illness and deaths from COVID-19 has inflated the challenges for administration and citizens. Rapid enhancement in health infrastructure and health personnel must be made along with strict adherence to the measures of quarantine, social distancing and hygiene for the citizens are of utmost response to the decrease the spread.
Highlights
The world is undergoing a ruthless experience of severe acute respiratory syndrome-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, which has caused over 26 million cases of illness and claimed over 0.86 million deaths as of 1 September 2020 spreading in 216 countries (WHO, 2020)
In view of the global shreds of evidence confirming the association between urbanisation and the spread of infectious disease transmission, this study attempts to highlight how the urban characteristics increase the vulnerability of COVID-19 spread in India
In the present crisis of COVID-19, the various urban characteristics are found to increase the vulnerability of COVID-19 spread
Summary
The world is undergoing a ruthless experience of severe acute respiratory syndrome-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, which has caused over 26 million cases of illness and claimed over 0.86 million deaths as of 1 September 2020 spreading in 216 countries (WHO, 2020). The global population is rapidly urbanised (Zachreson et al, 2018) as 56 per cent (4.2 billion) of the world population lives in urban areas (United Nations, 2018). In view of the global shreds of evidence confirming the association between urbanisation and the spread of infectious disease transmission, this study attempts to highlight how the urban characteristics increase the vulnerability of COVID-19 spread in India. The high density of population increases the chances of contacts with diseased persons (Ruiqi et al, 2018) and the dense urban centres have been the hotspots of COVID-19 cases (Biswas, 2020; Desai, 2020; Joel, 2020; Rocklöv & Sjodin, 2020).
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