The first survey of its kind on ‘COVID-19 Vaccine and Rural India’ by Gaon Connection, India’s biggest rural media platform, has found that in one-fourth of respondent households, at least one family member was tested for COVID-19. Of those tested, 59 per cent were found coronavirus positive. The highest proportion (42.6 per cent) of respondents in the East-Northeast zone reported that samples from at least one member of their households were taken for COVID-19 testing, whereas it was lowest in the north zone (11 per cent).

Overall, 15 per cent of the total covered samples reported that at least one person among their household or friends tested positive for COVID-19. 

Among the people who were tested, it was found that in the south zone, people in three out of every four households tested positive for COVID-19, the highest in the country. In contrast, it was the lowest in the north zone, where only 12 per cent tested positive.

These are among the key findings of the first-of-its-kind survey on the perceptions of rural Indians around the coronavirus vaccine by Gaon Connection Insights, the data and insights arm of Gaon Connection. 

The survey, released as ‘The Rural Report 3: COVID-19 Vaccine and Rural India’ is available in full for a free download on www.ruraldata.in. 

The face-to-face survey, conducted between December 1 and December 10, was carried out by Gaon Connection surveyors among 6,040 rural respondents across 60 districts in 16 states and one union territory. The selection of states, covering all regions of the country, was based on the prevalence of COVID-19 as per the COVID data of the Union ministry of health and family welfare, Government of India.

The survey has a margin of error of 5 per cent and a 95 per cent confidence level.

One-fourth of rural households said a family member had been tested for COVID-19. The number of such households was 42.6 per cent in the eastern and north-eastern states (Odisha, Assam, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh), followed by 37 per cent in the southern states (Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka), 23 per cent in the western states (Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh) and the lowest testing of 11 per cent in the northern states (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana). 

When it came to recovery, nearly 73 per cent of families said the COVID-19 positive member in their house had fully recovered, while 16 per cent had been cured to a great extent and eight per cent were still suffering. When it came to COVID-19 fatalities, 3.5 per cent of respondent families had lost a member to the pandemic.

When it came to full recovery, the survey found it was highest in states with a moderate rate of infection spread. In such states, 80 per cent of those infected fully recovered, while in states with higher and lower spread of Corona, complete recovery was at 72 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively. 

The survey also tried to gauge the status of quarantine facilities in rural India — were those who tested positive taken to a hospital for quarantine or told to self-isolate at home. The survey revealed that 73 per cent of rural households had been provided a quarantine facility, while the remaining 27 per cent isolated the patient at home. Also, nearly half of rural households (49.3 per cent) in states with lower spread of Corona infection had isolated the infected patient at home.