COVID-19: District level vulnerability assessment in India

COVID-19 Pandemic has brought a threatening challenge to the world and as well as for Indian society and economy. In India, it has become a public health disaster and its' intensity increasing continuously. For the disaster risk reduction, and capacity building against the COVID-19 pandemic understanding of the relationship between socio-environmental conditions with the pandemic is very necessary. The objective of the present work is to construct a socio-environmental vulnerability index of the potential risk of community spread of COVID-19 using socio-economic and environmental variables. In this, cross-sectional study principal component analyses have been used to drive SoEVI. 4 uncorrelated sub-index has been extracted from 16 sub-indicators which reflects 59% of the variance. Aggregation of 4 Sub-Index has been done to obtain the final vulnerability Index. Results show that there is spatial variability in vulnerability based on environmental and socio-economic conditions. Districts of north and central India found more vulnerable then south India. Statistical significance has been tested using regression analysis, positive relation has been found between vulnerability index and confirmed and active cases. The vulnerability index has highlighted environmentaly and socioeconomicallybackward districts. These areas will suffer more critical problems against COVID-19 pandemic for their socio-environmental problem. •Districts of north and central India are found most vulnerable compare to the northeast and south India.•The SoEVI indicates major urban areas and industrial districts are much vulnerable due to low air quality.•A positive correlation has been observed between SoEVI and district wise active and confirmed cases.•There will be a great chance to be the worst sufferer of a socio-economically backward district shortly.