India coronavirus digest: Participatory governance, alert public discussion

Participatory governance and alert public discussion, a different economic approach, and all about hydroxychloroquine and coronavirus. Read this and more in today's India coronavirus dispatch

Here’s a round-up of important Covid-19 articles in Indian publications — from participatory governance and alert public discussion, to all about hydroxychloroquine and coronavirus, and a different economic approach.

Expert Speak

India's preparedness to fight the coronavirus pandemic: Former health secretary Sujatha Rao explains in a podcast the critical issue of system preparedness in India, in particular the importance of rapidly building up critical health infrastructure during the lockdown, extensive testing to slow transmission, and future-proofing the country’s pandemic preparedness strategy. Listen to it here.

Citizens Under Lockdown

India’s jails are vastly overcrowded. Here are some ways to protect inmates from Covid-19: Simple solutions like providing masks to the staff and prisoners, installing wash basins with handwash bottles, increasing water supply through water tankers, among other measures, would go a long way in boosting the confidence of the staff and inmates, while preventing the spread of the disease. Read more about what India’s jails can do.

Intra-state migrants marooned, too: The continuing ordeal of chilli-farm workers — hailing mostly from Andhra Pradesh’s drought-ravaged Kurnool district — who have neither been accommodated in buildings nor received timely rations and cash from the district administration, suggests that poor migrants within states may be even worse off during the lockdown than inter-state migrants whose home states have been taking up their plight with the states where they are marooned. Read more here.

Long Reads

Does a pandemic justify using hydroxychloroquine to beat the coronavirus? Evidence in this antimalarial drug’s favour is scant, and the drug isn’t without risks, either. Patients who have been taking hydroxychloroquine for years sometimes suffer damage to the eye’s retina or abnormalities in the heart’s electrical system. Read more here, and listen to a podcast on the same.

Opinion

Overcoming a pandemic may look like fighting a war, but the real need is far from that: Problems arise from the fact that a single-minded pursuit of slowing the spread of the disease does not discriminate between different paths that can be taken in that pursuit, some of which could bring disaster and havoc in the lives of many millions of poor people, while others could helpfully include policies in the package that prevent such suffering. Amartya Sen explains why a social calamity needs participatory governance and alert public discussion.

A different economic approach: The economic cost of combating Covid-19 can be reduced by combining aggressive testing and isolation, a strategy proposed by economist Paul Romer for the US. For it to work, people must be tested in large numbers and those who test positive must be isolated. This will make it unnecessary for the rest of the population to stay home and it will allow the economy to restart. Read more here.

Managing Covid-19

Why healthcare workers above 60 should be ‘benched’: A recent study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases shows a steep age gradient in deaths from Covid-19. The case fatality rates are nearly four times higher for those over 60 years of age and 12 times higher for those above 70 years. Read more on this study here.

India’s first drive-through Covid-19 test site in Delhi promises more tests and privacy: The drive-through test begins with an online information sheet that the individual is required to fill out. It contains information fields about the ‘patient proforma’, that is, their symptoms as well as the doctor’s prescription. The patients are also required to jot down their car number and the make and model of their car, which is then verified ahead of the swab collection. Read more about how the drive-through Covid-19 test sites are functioning.

Urban joblessness up 22 per cent, experts fear gains against poverty to be wiped out: The CMIE data showing a rise in unemployment in urban areas by more than 22 per cent between March 22 and April 5 confirms that the lockdown prompted by coronavirus will wipe out the tremendous gains made by India in being the only country apart from China to lift millions out of poverty in the past three decades. Read more about how the future of many now is uncertain with the lockdown leaving hundreds without jobs, and sending them back to villages or small towns.

Understanding Covid-19

Why Covid-19 case fatality rate should be read with caution: CFR may be used to determine the severity and prognosis of a disease. But in case of the current pandemic, CFR may not be a completely reliable method as the total number of Covid-19 cases counted depends on how aggressively countries are testing. Read more here.

Ten questions posed by the virus: The Covid-19 pandemic is reopening several questions that were considered resolved by the end of the last century. It is upending our familiar world that was built over the last century, challenging certitudes that held our sanity. Our life after the pandemic will be defined by at least 10 questions on the prevailing organising principles of humankind. Read more here.