Determinants of COVID-19 pandemic in India: an exploratory study of Indian states and districts

The countries across the globe are facing one of the worst infectious diseases in modern times in the form of COVID-19 pandemic. Different measures have been taken to control and manage the outbreak of COVID-19 in these countries. There are two propositions in context of effective control and management of a pandemic like COVID-19. First, a strong and effective public health care system is essential for managing the public health crisis and the uneven responses to COVID-19 are mainly because of inadequate health infrastructure. Second, the spread of COVID-19 depends on the interplay of other social determinants at local level, and therefore, addressing the gaps in social determinants of COVID-19 at local level is critical to control and manage this pandemic. The present paper attempts to examine these two propositions in Indian context at states and districts level, respectively. Using the cross-sectional data and constructing composite indices of COVID-19 intensity and level of health infrastructure at state level, the results show that there is no robust relationship between level of health infrastructure and management of COVID-19 at state level as the states with better health infrastructure are also struggling to combat against COVID-19. The district-level analysis indicates a significant relationship between concentration of COVID-19 and social determinants as majority of the districts with higher concentration of COVID-19 are those which have social determinants below national average.