Covid-19: Virus infects the young more in Ahmedabad red zones

AHMEDABAD: Out of 48 wards of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), 10 are designated as red zones due to high number of Covid-19 cases. An nnalysis of the 6,473 cases recorded by AMC till May 13 by a team of Cept University alumni highlights that less than 25% of city’s geographic area has recorded 57.3% of the total cases.

The analysis also revealed that the percentage of younger patients in the red zones is higher than the rest of the city. Over half of the 1,729 Covid-19 patients below 30 years are from the red zones. Nearly 61% of 182 patients who are 11 years or below and 62% of 180 patients between 12 and 17 years are from the red zones.

Piyush Shah, an alumnus of Cept University’s 2011 batch and a geographic information system (GIS) specialist, said that he along with nine other alumni involved in GIS and data analytics started tracking the Covid-19 scenario from the first week of epidemic in the city. The team has made multiple maps of the city that provides insight into spread, patient profile and geography of the infection.

“The mapping is not only helpful for understanding the patients close to you – for researchers and policymakers, it can help understand the phenomenon. For example, walled city and Danilimda have concentration of younger patients. Similarly, the number of women patients in younger age groups till 17 years is more or same to men but as the age group progresses, share of men increases,” he said.