India Coronavirus Dispatch: Poll booths, wedding halls part of vaccine plan

Factors that will increase pressure to ration healthcare, signs of green shoots in consumer spending, lowest single-day death toll so far-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

Polling booths, wedding halls part of vaccine plan

As the country inches closer to the vaccine roll-out, the authorities are mulling over sites where people can receive the inoculation. 

India’s health administrators are evaluating several options including polling booths and wedding halls. They will need many options owing to the ambitious the aim of immunising 300 million Indians by the middle of 2021. Private hospitals will also be used for inoculation. The government plans to tightly control the entire process, from storage and transportation of the vaccine to the way it is administered, the writer says. Read more here

Rationing of healthcare will continue even after Covid-19

The pandemic has highlighted an issue that has long-plagued India's public health system, which is rationing of healthcare.

In India, even before the pandemic hit, public healthcare was rationed owing to the inability to adequately meet demand. Extraneous considerations often influence who gets treated and who does not. How healthcare resources are rationed also relies on gender, age, socioeconomic status and caste. Powerful people appropriate precious resources out of turn, the writers say.

Three drivers will increase the pressure to ration healthcare going forward and India's public health system should be prepared. Medical and technological breakthroughs that will increase the cost of medical procedures, India’s demographic transition, and the promise of the government to move to a system of universal health coverage, the writers say. Read more here

India posts its lowest number of one-day fresh cases and fatalities

The coronavirus statistics from Monday offered renewed hope that the country is starting to contain the pandemic slowly, but steadily. 

India reported its lowest number of cases of Coronavirus disease in a single day on Monday. There were 22,022 fresh cases. With that, the total number of people infected has reached 9,906,592 in the country.

With 352 deaths on Monday, the total number of single-day deaths was also the lowest on record so far. The cumulative death toll reached 143,764.

The first death due to Covid-19 in India was reported on March 12, from south India. Over the past week, India has also recorded one of the lowest daily cases and daily deaths due to Covid-19 per million population. Read more here

Nearly one in two Indians willing to spend on renovation, travel: Survey

After the economy took a severe blow from the pandemic-induced lockdowns, there are a few signs of recovery with 48 per cent consumers prepared to make ‘discretionary purchases’ in the next quarter in areas such as renovation and travel, a new survey by LocalCircles has found.

The ‘Mood of the Consumer’ survey evaluated the consumption habits of Indians during the festival season as well as future purchases. The survey found that between December 1 this year and March 31 next year, 48 per cent consumers are planning to spend between Rs 1,000 and Rs 50,000 in discretionary purchases, which refers to non-essential items for recreation and entertainment, the writer says. Read more here

The founders of community libraries for children are raising money during the pandemic through a library festival

The Community Library Project (TCLP) is a citizen-led free library project. TCLP is organising a fundraiser called the Free Library Festival 2020 to navigate through 2021 amid the pandemic. 

The money raised will be used to rebuild two of their four libraries in the Delhi national capital region, to run their reading fluency programmes and to support their online WhatsApp library, Duniya Sabki. Over two days (19-20 December), the festival offers a series of workshops by award-winning authors, publishers and artists. The workshops span a range of subjects – from identity politics, screenwriting and publishing guides for budding writers, to Hindustani classical music. Read more here