Impact of population density on the Covid-19 infected and mortality rates in India

Abstract

AbstractThe Covid-19 is a highly contagious disease which becomes a serious global health concern. The residents living in areas with high population density, such as big or metropolitan cities have a higher probability to come into close contact with others and consequently any contagious disease is expected to spread rapidly in dense areas. However, recently after analyzing Covid-19 cases in the US researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, London school of economics and IZA – Institute of Labor Economics conclude that the spread of Covid-19 is not linked with population density. Here we investigate the influence of population density on Covid-19 spread and related mortality in the context of India. After a detailed correlation and regression analysis of infection and mortality rates due to Covid-19 at the district level we find moderate association between Covid-19 spread and population density.