India coronavirus dispatch: Can RWAs really stop maids from coming to work?

From Mumbai migrant workers' struggle to get home, to rethinking school education, and why the coronavirus test costs Rs 4,500 in India - read these and more in today's dispatch.

Here is a selection of pieces from across publications on Covid-19. From Mumbai migrant workers’ struggle to get home, to rethinking school education, and why the coronavirus test costs Rs 4,500 in India – read these and more in today’s dispatch.

Expert Speak

Some Covid-19 patients are presenting with gastro symptoms: Some patients presenting with gastrointestinal or ENT (ear-nose-throat) symptoms are also testing positive for Covid-19. Every patient should be investigated for Covid-19 to reduce unnecessary exposure to healthcare workers and the larger community. Read this interview with Saibal Moitra, adjunct professor and senior consultant, Department of Allergy and Immunology at the Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, Kolkata,

Long Reads

Why does the coronavirus test cost Rs 4,500 in India? A debate has broken out over the price that private labs are charging for Covid-19 tests. The pricing question turned out to be complex. Would the costs have come down if the government had allowed labs to assemble their own kits instead of mandating that they buy ready-made ones?

Citizens Under Lockdown

Confusion reigns as migrant workers in Mumbai struggle to get home: It took five weeks and two lockdown extensions for the government to finally announce measures to send migrant workers home. But the announcement has been followed by a slew of confusing orders, leading to more distress on the ground.

India coronavirus dispatch: Social measures to raise public consciousness

From risk stratification approach, to a game-changing vaccine, and what precautions you should take when visiting a shop - read these and more in today's India dispatch.

Here’s a round-up of important coronavirus-related articles from across Indian publications. From risk stratification approach, to a game-changing vaccine, and what precautions you should take when visiting a shop – read these and more in today’s India dispatch

Citizens Under Lockdown

NGO feeds 30,000 slum dwellers daily during lockdown: The Mumbai Roti Bank (MRB), a non-governmental organisation, founded by Sivanandan in January 2018, has tied up with the Mumbai Police to ensure that the city’s daily-wage earners and the poor living in areas like Dharavi, a containment zone, do not go without food.

Covid lockdown takes a toll on India’s red-light areas: Most residents of red-light areas live in cramped quarters, with poor sanitation and often no running water, ruling out social distancing and other hygiene measures that are supposed to contain the virus. Should a case of Covid-19 be detected in these areas, it would spread like wildfire, social workers as well as residents of red-light districts fear.

Long Reads

Essential outreach services hit in states with worst health indicators: Six of the eight most socioeconomically backward Indian states — together called the empowered action group — which have among the highest infant and maternal mortality rates have discontinued health outreach services during the lockdown, multiple government and media reports show. Immunisation, antenatal checks (ANCs) and nutrition drives have been halted in all these states except Odisha, which continues apace, and Uttarakhand, which has kept its immunisation services open

India coronavirus dispatch: A time for brave and imaginative action

From caring about the Indian migrant, to getting the containment strategy right, and when one could get infected from food - read these and more in today's India dispatch.

Here is a round-up of important articles on Covid-19 from across Indian publications – from caring about the Indian migrant, to getting the containment strategy right, and when one could get infection from their food.

Expert Speak

Now is the time to show india cares about its migrants: Benoy Peter, an expert on internal migration, and executive director of Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, a Kerala-based non-profit, says in this interview that this might be the time for India to show it cares about its migrant workers. He suggests the country should immediately take measures like ensuring food and decent living conditions, testing for Covid-19, and explaining properly to workers in their own language the intricacies of this virus.

Citizens Under Lockdown

Locked down and forgotten in Mumbai: The protest by thousands of stranded migrants at Mumbai’s Bandra railway station on Tuesday evening was yet another reminder of how the nationwide lockdown had been hardest on the poorest among us. It also exposed holes in the government’s repeated claims that it had been providing food and other essentials to those who needed it most. Read more here.

Don’t push yourself to excel in BYJU’S and Duolingo: People are trying new things during the Covid-19 lockdown but it is a problem if they pressure themselves to master those hobbies in these stressful times. Finding time to finally do something you always wanted to is indeed a productive, self-improving and satisfying way of spending time in isolation. Read here why it’s vital to realise that one doesn’t have to come out of this pandemic prim, proper, with a degree in hand and a new language on the lips.

Opinion

A long haul, spend wisely, but don’t skimp on the truly needy: The biggest worry right now is that a huge number of people will be pushed into dire poverty or even starvation by the combination of the loss of their livelihoods and interruptions in the standard delivery mechanisms. Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee, and former RBI Governor of India Raghuram Rajan explain why as part of the commitment to not miss the needy, there has to be funding available for state and local governments to find effective ways of reaching those suffering from extreme deprivation. If there was ever a challenge that required brave and imaginative action, this has to be it.

India coronavirus digest: Why we need a greater decentralisation of power

From risks posed by discarded medical waste, to why a strong scientific workforce is our best insurance against adversity, read these and more in today's world coronavirus digest.

Here is a roundup of articles from news publications on how India is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic — from the risk posed by discarded medical waste to sanitation workers, to federal limitations, and why a strong scientific workforce is our best insurance against adversity.

Citizens Under Lockdown

Sanitation workers at risk from discarded medical waste related to Covid-19: Sanitation workers and rag pickers are at risk from handling unmarked medical waste emerging from homes where Covid-19 patients are quarantined, medical experts and waste management specialists have warned. Discarded masks, gloves and tissues could be potential sources for the spread of this highly contagious virus, they have said.

Lockdown making you restless? Chances are you have cabin fever: Being cooped up in our homes for as long as we have is bound to stir up negative emotions. If you too are experiencing it, you might have cabin fever. Here are some steps that you can take to fight off this distress and irritability.

Long Reads

Neglected frontline workers need coronavirus safety gear: In Maharashtra, the worst-affected state, nurses, sanitation workers, and community health workers say they do not have adequate protection from virus exposure. Despite the high level of precaution that they have been asked to exercise, workers have not received any personal protective equipment from hospitals. Such equipment – masks, gloves, face shields, gowns and goggles – is needed to prevent exposure to the coronavirus.

Opinion

Needed, greater decentralisation of power: A crisis of the kind that Covid-19 has wrought will show us that India needs a greater decentralisation of power, and that administration through a single central executive unit is unsuited to its diverse and heterogeneous polity. We cannot continue to regard the intricate niceties of our federal structure as a nettlesome trifle.