Spatial diffusion and interiorization of COVID-19 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

COVID-19 is already the greatest public health challenge of this century and is spreading rapidly in Brazil, from capitals to the interior, with variations that accompany its own territorial inequalities. The rapid spread of the virus has led the country to take second place in the number of cases in the world, but the consequences of this process are still uncertain in small and highly deprived municipalities. The objective of this work is to analyze the diffusion and spatial interiorization of COVID-19 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and to evaluate this dispersion in relation to a typology of municipalities classified by population size and levels of social deprivation. This is an ecological study conducted with all registered cases of COVID-19 between the 11th and 21st epidemiological weeks (EW). The data were collected from official secondary sources and modeled in a geographic information system. The analyzes were performed with exploratory techniques of spatial data, descriptive statistics and use of the Kernel density estimator. The results showed a spatial concentration of cases and deaths of COVID-19 in the most developed axes of the state, but in the last EW the growth was greater in small and medium-sized municipalities with high social deprivation.