India coronavirus dispatch: How Dharavi managed to prove doomsayers wrong

A new survey shows that three out of four Indians believe the pandemic will deepen inequalities among primary and secondary students

Dharavi’s screen-test-screen-test model: Many had predicted that once the pandemic would hit one of the world’s largest slum, the results would be disastrous. While virus continues to spread, Mumbai’s Dharavi has so far fared much better than what doomsayers feared. Officials opted for a proactive strategy rather than a reactive one — chase the virus before it infects people. Rather than mass testing, mass screening was used by setting up fever camps in localities. Residents had their temperature checked; those suspected were tested and taken to hospital isolation wards if found positive. While ‘test, test, test’ has been the mantra worldwide, at Dharavi it was ‘screen-test-screen-test’. Even mass screening was rationalised by identifying the areas that reported high caseloads. Read the ground report here.

Widening inequality: A new survey seems to highlight the anxieties of the country’s population – three out of four Indian believe that the pandemic will deepen inequalities among primary and secondary students. Eighty per cent of the respondents further believe that education as a whole will be disrupted till a vaccine is released. Almost the same proportion of respondents are concerned by the growing digital divide. On the other hand, two-thirds feel that higher education institutions are better equipped to deal with the situation. Eighty per cent also say they will not consider going abroad for education. Read more here.

Four states that are a cause for concern: Even as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka see their daily case numbers swell, four other large states have come under the spotlight for their huge caseload addition. Even as the numbers decline at the national level, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and West Bengal continue to be a cause for concern. UP and Bengal have already crossed the 100,000 mark, while Bihar is fast catching up. Since July, each of these 4 states has had a daily growth rate higher than 4 per cent. Kerala, which was earlier a source of hope, has also been adding relatively large number of cases. Read more here.

Food for relief: Akshaya Patra, believed to run the world’s largest mid-day meal programme, found its traditional programme coming to a grinding halt during the pandemic. The organisation then shifted gears to an exercise it calls ‘Food for Relief’. In Andhra Pradesh alone, the organisation delivered about 141,000 cooked meals and over 30,000 grocery kits. The CEO of Akshaya Patra says they are part of the National Disaster Management. Stressing that the kitchens are hygienic, he further says the organisation is ready to deliver 6 million meals by the time the pandemic hits its peak. Read more here.

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Need for nutrition: The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed many chinks in India’s public health care response. Among the important ones is the need for nutrition in children. The right nutrition levels is crucial for long-term growth and development and for short-term immunity responses. In Odisha, where malnutrition among children is notoriously high, nutrition gardens in schools ensured that children got their daily required intake. However, the pandemic now poses a challenge to the state’s administration in terms of ensuring healthy diet. In some of Odisha’s districts anaemia is highly prevalent. Read more here.

Understanding Covid-19

How the immunity response goes awry: A new study tries to answer the question that has baffled many during the pandemic: why are some Covid-19 cases more severe than the others? The research has uncovered some critical lapses and deviations in the immune system that can now explain the great variance in severity of cases. The difference may be rooted in how our ‘evolutionary ancient innate’ immunity system responds to the virus. Upon sensing pathogens, our innate immunity system launches an indiscriminate battle against the virus. The researchers analysed immune response in 76 Covid-infected people and 69 healthy ones. In the people that were severely affected by the virus, the researchers found enhanced levels of molecules that led to inflammation of blood. The findings are crucial in understanding how different people will respond to the virus and what the best means of treating them can be. Read more here.

Unpredictable virus: While the understanding of the virus has greatly improved over time, one aspect of the disease that continues to be fluid is the virus’ lifespan. “This is such a complex disease that even immunologists can’t fully know everything about it,” says a health expert. Another aspect where understanding continues to evolve is antibodies. Our bodies take two to three weeks to develop antibodies to fight the virus. These antibodies disappear in about three months after first appearing; that is natural. However, it’s the re-infections that are a bit harder to explain. Some experts now believe the people who were assumed to have recovered never actually did. Besides, there are a few flaws in antibody tests. Read more here.