Spatial mapping and socio-demographic determinants of COVID-19 mortality in India

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2. The first case of COVID-19 was detected in Wuhan city of China in December 2019. Geographic information system (GIS) mapping is important for the surveillance of infectious diseases. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study are to map spatially total cases and case fatality rate of COVID-19 and to build a linear regression model for mortality based on socio-demographic variables. METHOLOGY: We plotted the epidemiological data of COVID-19 of Indian states as on 11(th) May 2021 using the Q-GIS software. We used socio-demographic variables as the predictors of COVID-19 mortality and developed a linear regression model. RESULTS: Adjusted R-squared in linear regression model based on socio-demographic variables for COVID-19 deaths is 0.82. CONCLUSIONS: There are spatial variations in COVID-19 cases and deaths.