India Coronavirus Dispatch: Time to rethink, transform our cities

Covid impacts medical research, infections rise in Indian jails, and what Pune's sero-survey tells us--a roundup of news on how the country is coping with the pandemic

Fashion woes: Until mid-March, India was the most attractive market for the fast fashion segment. Leaner supply chains, Chinese imports, young workforce and celebrity/influencer endorsements meant the fashion retail segment was having a good time. That is until Covid hit. Now malls look like dystopian landscapes with most stores closed and a permanent scent of sanitiser in the air. In July, sales at high street stores dipped 50 per cent from the year-ago period. Besides, debt is a key factor weighing heavy on retailers. Also, the fact is that 80 per cent of organised fashion retail in the country operates on lease — either on malls or in high streets. While some high street landlords were amenable to reducing rent, the malls started bringing in agreement clauses to the conversation. For now, retailers are just hoping things can go back to business as usual. Read more here.

Covid hits research: Covid-19 has taken a toll on scientific research as well. Laboratories, other than the ones working on vaccines, have been shut or are functioning with reduced personnel to ensure social distancing. According to one survey, close to one-third of neuroscience researchers are contemplating leaving their discipline over a lack of resources since the pandemic hit. Scientists have also had to decrease their working hours. A major jolt to the field has been that researchers are finding it difficult to conduct Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) since they require physical presence of facilitators, volunteers and so on. Researchers are now adapting to the situation by changing their tools and methods. Read more here.

Pandemic outbreak in jails: In the past week, over 350 inmates at Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram central jail have tested positive for the virus. Of these, 145 cases were detected just on Sunday. Mass testing of inmates began after an undertrial prisoner, lodged in the prison since 2016, died on Sunday. The prison has a total capacity of 727 but 960 people are currently lodged inside. Since May, the state’s prison department has been screening all new remand prisoners and only those that tested negative were being imprisoned. In Maharashtra, meanwhile, over 1,000 prisoners had tested positive for the virus until last week. Read more here.

In Numbers

Maharashtra’s positivity rate on the rise: On Tuesday, India crossed the 2.7-million mark after adding over 55,000 new cases. India’s positivity rate recorded a decrease from 8.85 per cent on 14 August to 7.68 per cent on 18 August. Among states/UTs, it is the Andaman and Nicobar islands that posted the highest positivity rate of 56.75 per cent. Puducherry was in second place with 29.06 per cent while Maharashtra moved up to occupy the third position with 18.49 per cent positivity rate. As far as tests per million go, Goa remained on top with 105,519. Jharkhand continues to be the state with the least number of tests per million with 12,281. On the national level, the tests conducted per million was 22,562. Read more here.

What Pune’s sero-survey tells us: Pune was the fourth major city to report the results of a sero-survey. Compared Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad, Pune reported a very high prevalence of antibodies. This was despite the survey being much smaller than that in other cities. Of the total 1,664 individuals tested, 51.5 per cent were positive. If you adjust for the test’s sensitivity and specificity then an even higher prevalence would occur. As in the case with Mumbai, the prevalence varied greatly with the kind of housing. The rate was 62 per cent in hutments and 33 per cent in apartments. This shows that, among other things, housing poverty is a crucial factor in the spread of the disease. Read more here.

Long Read

Migrant journey: As this story highlights, the lives of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers around the country came undone after the pandemic hit. This couple from Jharkhand — now residing in Gurugram — had no income after they could not continue with the auto rickshaw business. Besides, whatever safety net they had was also uprooted. The writer traces their journey from being high-spirited and hopeful when they first came to the big city to their angry and cynical condition now. They aren’t very enthusiastic about the schemes announced for them, either. To make matters worse, they have received notices from a government school asking them to arrange for transportation for their kids on their own. Some other people, meanwhile, are unhappy that their relatively well-off kids will be in contact with the children of migrants’. Read more here.

Comment

Time to rethink our cities: Indian cities — home to 461 million and responsible for 63 per cent of GDP — are at the frontline of the pandemic. Almost two-third of India’s caseload is concentrated in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Their high population density makes the spread of virus difficult to manage. The most important aspect that needs looking into is access to water. It’s clean, uninterrupted supply of water that will not only keep the current pandemic in check but will also prevent future outbreaks of other diseases. The pandemic also highlighted the urgent need to decongest slums in our cities for ensuring basic hygiene and living standards. If there’s one thing the current crisis has taught us, it’s that cities need an urgent transformation into spaces that are more inclusive and safe. Read more here.