Covid 19 pandemic has brought the Globe on its knees ! ~ it is certainly bad with so many dying, yet it is perhaps not that bad as the media, more specifically social media has put it to be ! people vie with other to post statistics !!
What is your understanding of Covid 19 – the way it has affected people ? –Are you seeing / hearing of people known to you, residing closer to you ? How much do you fear ? – how many times you venture out in a week ? – Life is all about spreadsheets, powerpoints, videos and … .. statistics - Stats is always as blind men see the elephant – the perspective that you see matters ! Often, media would belittle Uttarpradesh, the State with high % of illiterates as compared to Kerala, the State with high % of litereates.
India is a Nation having
States – and many of States have population equivalent to that of many Nations
of the World. Before you read any further – remember India has 36 entities – 28
States and 8 Union territories and they are equal in terms of area or in terms
of population. Uttar Pradesh is the
topper with 16.7% of population; Maharashtra has 9.22%; Tamil Nadu has 5.91;
Andhra Pradesh has 3.9 and Kerala has 2.58% of the total population.
There are various ways of analyzing and interpreting – we regularly get to see – the aggregate no, of Covid afflicted; while the other possible modes are : the no. of active people affected; no. of deaths; % of recovery; % of people affected as compared to the total population of the State; density of people and more .. ..
Corona numbers are
threatening. With
its highest single day rise of novel coronavirus cases, Chhattisgarh crossed
the one-lakh mark on Saturday, becoming the 18th state in the country to do so. The coronavirus numbers in Chhattisgarh has
grown at the fastest rate in the country in the month of September, at one
point increasing by over six per cent per day. Its total caseload has increased
by three times this month, from about 33,000 to over 1.02 lakh now. Not
surprisingly, Chhattisgarh also has the highest reproductive number right now. Reproductive number, or R, is the number of people who get
infected by an already infected person, on an average, and is a measure of how
fast the epidemic is spreading in a population group.
Right out there, the blue-eyed State of the media, Kerala, once appreciated for its effective resistance against COVID-19. State Health Minister K.K. Shailaja was invited as a speaker to the UN Public Service Day ! prompting the actor-politician and twitter king to jump the bandwagon hailing the State and instructing the Tamil Nadu Govt to follow the Kerala model without ever thinking of its population, spread, literacy, geography, demography or anything else .. .. he, obviously is totally silent now.
Kerala surpassed neighbouring Tamil Nadu to fifth
position in the number of active Covid-19 cases on Friday. The active cases
rose to 48,892 in Kerala, 2,506 more than nearby Tamil Nadu. The state reported
6,000-plus cases for the second straight day. Of the 6,477 total cases, 6,131
patients were infected through local transmission. Kerala’s peak started when the pandemic is
showing a downward trend in other places, according to the chairperson, who
says the peak will continue until early or mid-October if the present
precautions continue. The number of active cases too will be high considering
the number of new cases and the long treatment period.
While TN Health Minister Dr
Udayabaskar is prominently visible right from Mar 2020, visiting hospitals,
health care centres, discussing with Ministers, officials, Doctors, medical
staff and social workers tirelessly, he did not get that recognition as his
counterpart in Kerala got. But now, Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja has warned
the public that the state might be forced to implement stringent measures
including a second lockdown if the ‘irresponsible’
behaviour of a section of people in the name of protests does not end. In the initial phase, it was the great work of the Kerala
Govt, but now it is the irresponsible behaviour of Keralites. State
health minister K K Shailaja on Sunday admitted that it is a testing time for
Kerala and cases may go up sharply by next month. More than 40,000 cases were reported in the
last one week and the positivity rate has gone up to 11.9% while the national
average is below 8%. “Our strategy was right from day one and we contained
deaths considerably. Our death rate is still below one per cent. But of late
cases are surging and it was expected. It is the second wave of the virus,” she
said.
On Sunday,
the state reported a newer high of 7,445 new cases taking the total to
1,75,384. Patients who have recovered stand at 1,17,921 and active cases are
56,709. With 21 new casualties, the death toll has gone up to 678.
Shun the
media ! ~ reports are often biased.
With regards –
S. Sampathkumar
27.09.2020.
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