Introduction to Pandemic at Global and National Level

The novel coronavirus also known as COVID19 pandemic has already affected over 51,808,319 people all over the world as of 31st October 2020 (WHO Country Office for India, 2020). The most cases were reported in United States of America, India, Brazil and Russia. As of 31st October 2020 the total number of confirmed COVID19 deaths around the world is 1,278,715 with highest in United States, Brazil and India. Though if considered corona deaths per million population, the situation is worse in South American countries and the US while it is much lower in tally in India with a fatality rate of 1.52% only. The very first case of COVID19 in India was reported on 30th January, 2020 which came through a student who returned from China, Wuhan. Only two cases were reported by the month of February in India while the count of affected people worldwide was 71,429. India jumped from 3rd place to 2nd place in the world with 81,37,119 confirmed cases as of 31st October 2020. India sought an increase of nearly 590,000 new cases of COVID19 in first week of September. The increased surge in number of cases could be due to sudden increased number of tests done. Tests per million population has increased from 6,396 on 1st July to 43,888 as of 31st October with a cumulative tests surpassing the 5 crore mark as per Union Health Ministry. Guidelines provided by WHO on “Public Health Criteria to Adjust Public Health and Social Measures in the Context of COVID-19”, has advised countries to conduct 140 tests per day per million population for detection of corona virus in suspected citizens. As shown in figure2, India has shown a continuous rise in the number of tests done per million per day week wise. According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), majority of confirmed cases were reported from the state of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil

Figure 1 Worldwide confirmed COVID19 cases visualisation Source: WHO official website accessed from https://covid19.who.int/table

Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. MoHFW also revealed in a report. India with a population of 1 billion people and high population density of 382 person per sq. km which is almost 3 times that of China, poor healthcare resources and social economic conditions could become a new epicentre of COVID19. World Health Organisation (WHO) has also stated that the “future of the pandemic will depend on how India handles it”. Therefore this report is an attempt to study COVID19 management in Indian cities. After months of managing the crisis while doing the everyday work of government, cities are opening up again without knowing how long this period of co-existence with the virus will last. Months of lockdown period has ended and ctiy governments are creating new strategies to tackel the corona virus. The study focuses on analysing their service delivery models and the scope of improvements to make cities perform better and more efficient.

4,85,609

16,87,784

Figure 2 Average tests per million per day week wise Source: Mint article accessed from https://www.livemint.com/news/india/ covid-19-india-scales-a-new-peak-as-total-number-of-tests-cross-5-croremark-11599554858565.html Figure 3 Number of confirmed cases in Indian states as of 31st October 2020 Source: https://www.facebook.com/IndiaToday/photos/?ref=page_internal

7,31,942

17,00,000