India coronavirus dispatch: How Covid spreads from a contaminated surface

From five lessons India should learn from the crisis, to state of sport post-Covid, read these and more in today's India dispatch

Lessons to make cities more liveable for workers, why the spike in cases is worrying, and should the middle seats in aircrafts be kept empty or not? — here is a roundup of articles in Indian news publications on how India is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Increasing Covid-19 cases are worrying, even alarming: At this stage and with this number of infections it is important to test people who have come in contact with a Covid-19 confirmed case even if they are themselves asymptomatic. Watch this interview with Professor Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, a member of the WHO’s executive committee handling the solidarity trials, and a former head of cardiology at AIIMS, who says the increase in Covid-19 casesis worrying and calls for action by the government.

Five lessons India should learn from the crisis to make cities more liveable for workers: To address the challenges to containment strategies of Covid-19 in India’s informal settlements, the authorities must take a long-term view of gaps in infrastructure, services and urban design. It also requires a study of how residents of informal settlements navigate their neighbourhoods to access services and relief measures. Read more here. 
 

Odiya workers at Telangana’s brick kilns promise never to return, owners worry about survival: Most brick kilns wear a deserted look, barring a few worker families staying there. Many workers, who hail from Odisha, have already gone back to their homes, or are stranded on highways. But those who stayed back now say they cannot wait to return to their villages, and never want to come back to Telangana. The workers accuse the kiln owners and the state authorities of apathy in providing them bare essentials under the lockdown. Read more here

Migrant workers forced to camp outside Secunderabad station: Shramik trains are special trains run by the state and central government to transport the migrant workers free of cost. The state and union governments are to split this cost. According to the Secunderabad Mandal Revenue Officer, Shramik trains from Telangana were stopped on May 30, “since all the workers have left the state”. Despite many migrant workers camping outside the railway station, no authority has approached them to guide them and address their concerns, the stranded migrants allege. Read more here.

Why telemedicine won’t help India’s ailing out-patient consultations much: During the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine has been promoted extensively by the Indian government as a long-term solution for Indian healthcare. However, telemedicine predominantly helps only the middle class, restricted by 36 per cent internet penetration in India. Despite these limitations, telemedicine has encouraged both patients and doctors to consider novel processes for consultations. This therefore provides opportunities to deliberate more useful changes in outpatient consultations (OPC) in India. Read more here.

Countries with higher TB, Malaria and HIV cases reporting fewer Covid deaths? The WHO announced in a press conference that the world might have to come to terms with the coronavirus disease as the situation looks like it may not settle down soon. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, researchers across the globe are trying to find the potential factors explaining the infections and deaths attributed to novel coronavirus in multifarious forms of researches. They have left no stone unturned to remedy this issue, but are we any closer to an antidote? Read more here.

UNDERSTANDING COVID-19

What are the rules around the world for wearing masks? WHO Friday changed its guidelines on using face masks, advising that face masks should be worn in public to stop the spread of COVID-19.In the revised guidelines, it suggests that everyone should wear fabric masks (non-medical) in public. Fabric masks should contain at least three layers of different materials. On the other hand, any person showing the symptoms of COVID-19 should wear a medical mask apart from self-isolating and seeking medical advice as soon as they feel unwell. Read more here. 

How Covid-19 spreads from a contaminated surface: Subhojit Sen, a scientist at Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences in Mumbai, explains here that the droplets that come out of the mouth of an infected person while they sneeze, cough or even exhale, are the primary source of the virus. Then, within the next few minutes, these droplets settle down eventually on various surfaces within about 1-2 metres. This is the second source of infection. Read more here.

Must I wear PPE kit on the middle seat? While several people have undertaken air travel since domestic flights resumed during Lockdown 4.0, there are many who are still in a dilemma. Watch this interview with former executive director of Air India, Jitender Bhargava to get answers to some of the questions that passengers are still struggling with. For instance - should middle seats be kept empty or not? Is aircraft air-conditioning safe? Is flying risky at the moment?

PODCAST

The state of sport post Covid-19: One of the biggest ways in which COVID-19 has changed the world, has changed life as we know it, is the cancellation of virtually all big sporting events and all sporting leagues around the world. But in recent weeks, as countries around the world, including India, are emerging out of some form of lockdown, it has meant that sport has started resuming, like everything else, with a new normal. Which sports have resumed and how have the rules changed and, crucially for us here in India, what lies ahead for cricket? Listen here.