India coronavirus dispatch: Role of financing in crisis control, recovery

From the role of finance in containing the fallout and supporting recovery, to halting rumours, and what epidemiologists actually do - read these and more in today's India dispatch

Here is a round-up of important coronavirus-related articles from across India publications. From the role of finance in containing the fallout and in supporting recovery, to halting rumours, and what epidemiologists actually do – read these and more in today's India dispatch.

Citizens Under Lockdown

Life inside a Hyderabad containment zone: The containment zones in Hyderabad are heavily guarded and no movement is allowed in or out of the area. Large barricades made of bamboo have been put up on one end of the lane, while the only entry and exit point is heavily guarded by policemen. Read more here.

Worried, but Sailing through: What happens when both parents are out at work during the nationwide lockdown? When both their services are non-negotiable and crucial to the nation? Read here about parents fighting Covid-19 on the frontlines.

Opinion

One contagion is more than enough for India: India has chosen an odd combination of strategies in its fight against coronavirus – a harsh lockdown on economic activity and a meagre fiscal response to the loss of jobs and incomes. What’s making this more painful is a denial of the role of finance in both containing the fallout of the outbreak and later in supporting the recovery. Read this to know why the country faces a double blow from Covid-19 if financing isn’t there for the recovery.

Halting the march of rumours: Where do rumours spring from and why and how do they spread so fast? Why do they thrive in a crisis? Not all rumours are pernicious. Some are potentially harmful, but they disappear without much impact. But the ones that concern us here are toxic, occur with cataclysmic events and have devastating results. Read here to understand why and how such rumours must be checked.

Solidarity is a potent weapon against pandemic, prejudice weakens us all: The lockdown was designed and implemented entirely bereft of empathy and compassion. Then the scapegoat became any outsider. We have reports from around the country where not just gated colonies but poor neighbourhoods and villages have blockaded themselves, with no stranger allowed in. Even migrants who managed to dodge the police — they walked or hid in boxes on trucks, trying to return to their families in the dead of the night — and are willing to quarantine in their homes, are not allowed to. Read here why solidarity and compassion are crucial during a pandemic.

Managing Covid-19

The pandemic and the contours of a health response: The fight against Covid-19 can only be won when we get a preventive vaccine or a therapeutic drug on hand. Until then, the threat of the virus returning when conditions are conducive to its spread cannot be ruled out. Read here to understand why a measured public health approach with community participation will help the government in ensuring a sustained response to stem its tide.

Nine measures that could help keep India’s agriculture supply chain from breaking: In India, the government has been taking precautions to ensure that the harvest season and the farm inputs supply chain are not disrupted. But on the ground, it’s clear that the agriculture system has been fractured. From pineapple to tea, and other sub-sectors like seeds and farm inputs, the sector is in deep shock. Read here to underhand what the government could do in the short run as well as the long run to ensure that Indian farms do not grind to a halt.

In post-Covid India, government must focus on social housing for poor: Amid the discussion about how to provide relief and ration to migrant workers, it is also important to find out where and in what conditions these people were residing all this while and what led to such an exodus. Read more here.

Understanding Covid-19

Are visitors allowed to meet critically ill Covid-19 patients? One “particularly difficult” aspect of the pandemic is whether to allow visitors to meet their critically ill family members. Read here to understand how visitors can become infected with the disease themselves, especially when they visit a Covid-19 ward.

What do epidemiologists do – and why are they crucial to India’s fight against Covid-19? Governments rely on their estimates while framing policies related to public health crises. The novel coronavirus has brought into focus the work of a previously little-known community of researchers – epidemiologists. Read here to learn why epidemiologists are, in a sense, disease detectives who ask the right questions.

Can an unborn baby be infected with coronavirus? Vertical transmission, or a mother infecting her foetus or new-born, is an emerging aspect of Covid-19. Read this for a deep look at the available evidence worldwide so far, and ICMR’s recent guidelines to address this concern.

Human and animal health are two chapters in the same book: ‘One health’ is a trans-disciplinary approach that recognises the relationship between people, animals and the environment, which they all share. Read here to understand why we should understand human and animal health together, instead of separately, to be able to control zoonotic diseases.

Video

What is PPE? Personal protective equipment or PPEs are crucial to keep healthcare workers on the Covid-19 pandemic's frontline safe. PPEs work as a barrier between an individual’s skin, mouth, nose, or eyes to protect against viral and bacterial infections. Watch this video to understand what it comprises.