Response to COVID-19
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Uncommon Response for Common People: The Case of Bankura, West Bengal
By Sritama Rana and Porag Shome | Jun 12, 2020
As we move ahead in this fight, it is befitting to pause and acknowledge the efforts made by several large and small informal citizen groups that are unregistered and have no formal access to leverage financial support, and which came together to extend humanitarian support.
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Migrant Lives Matter: A Photo Feature
By Team ECE | Jun 11, 2020
Like Narasimhulu and Paravthi’s family, there are more than 40 other families in the nearby locality in the same situation. Although the government and voluntary organisations are working hard to reach all the needy, there are many families that are left out and remain unserved.
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Pandemic Response: Field Stories from Telangana
By Team ECE (Early Childhood Education) | Jun 10, 2020
The lockdown affected the community more than COVID-19 itself. It revealed how the majority of the population is living (earning and spending on essentials) on a daily basis. When the economy comes to a standstill, the weakest take the blow. With very little cash, resources and rations to sustain them, they suffer in silence. The government support, unfortunately, is designed in a way that it reaches the neediest, last.
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West Bengal’s COVID-19 Strategy: Beyond the Hype
By Arghadeep Saha | Jun 4, 2020
The devastation caused by the Super Cyclone Amphan has in many ways dealt a body blow to the administration struggling to contain the pandemic in already challenging circumstances. Incidentally, the cyclone-affected areas are also the most affected by the coronavirus. Going forward, it would be imperative for the central and state administration to work in tandem to overcome the double-edged sword that has cut across West Bengal to ensure lives are saved and the economy put back on track.
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Containment and Welfare: Rajasthan’s Two-Pronged Response to COVID-19
By Indira Patil | Jun 3, 2020
The strategy of strict containment, screening and lockdown was popularised as the ‘Bhilwara Model’. Other districts were encouraged to adopt it to tackle and limit the spread of COVID-19. But as the District Magistrate of Bhilwara himself suggests that, the Bhilwara Model is applicable only in the context of small towns and districts where the population density is low, and it is easier to practice social distancing.
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Bihar and the Looming Corona Crisis
By Poorva Awasthi | Jun 2, 2020
Shocking images of poor migrants being held like prisoners in detention centres across India and reports of their starvation are rampant on social media. Despite this, the state government has refused to acknowledge the tragedy and continues to claim that it is handling the crisis well.
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Responding to the Pandemic: The Gujarat Model
By Keshab Das and Hastimal Sagara | Jun 1, 2020
The state stands nowhere close to the efforts and achievement of several other Indian states neither as prosperous nor having as comparable extensive, high-end healthcare endowments. How Gujarat has responded to the pandemic thus far is the central concern of this short paper.
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COVID-19 Pandemic: Maharashtra — Civil Society Response and Challenges Ahead
By Sanchita Das and Peehu Pardeshi | May 27, 2020
In in Mumbai since March 24, when the lockdown was announced, more than fifty organisations were already at the forefront of relief activities in different pockets of the city. They have pooled in their resources (existing funds) for distributing ration, setting up shelter homes, and community kitchens, distributing protective medical equipment and creating awareness in vernacular medium.
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Australia’s Experience in Dealing with COVID-19: Are There Lessons for India?
By Ranjan Ray | May 26, 2020
While India and Australia share some common features, such as a large landmass, concentration of its working population in and around the urban metropolitan areas, and a federal structure with significant movements within the country, there are several disparate features between the two countries that may have shaped their different COVID-19 experiences to date.
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Indonesia’s Response to Covid-19 Outbreak
By Esther Sri Astuti SA | May 21, 2020
This pandemic has and will have a larger impact on the national economy. Many people will see a drastic decrease in their incomes and loss of their livelihood and many may lose their lives. Indonesia is predicted to experience a recession, even a depression.
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Punjab’s Fight Against COVID-19: Hopes, Fears and the Balancing Act
By Indervir Singh and Naresh Kumar | May 20, 2020
Punjab is one of the few states that has taken relatively early and more stringent measures to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. The early actions were quite understandable as it is one of the states that have the largest diaspora living in countries most affected by the virus. A large section of these persons of Indian origin (PIO) and non-resident Indians (NRIs) travel to Punjab almost every year between October and March.
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Uttar Pradesh’s Strategic Preparedness and Response to COVID-19
By Shashank Khare | May 15, 2020
Agra was declared as the first COVID-19 cluster in India with one of the first cluster cases identified in the city. However, Agra was quick to curb the spread of the virus, and the numbers stopped rising rapidly within a few days. The strategy and response adopted by the district authorities were so successful that this was praised by the Central Government and came to be known as the Agra Model.
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COVID-19 and the United States Government
By Preethi Krishnan | May 14, 2020
The US government signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act that requires public and private insurance plans to cover the cost of COVID-19 testing. But even in this dire situation, the law does not cover the cost of COVID-19 treatment or other associated charges unrelated to testing. Will an uninsured person visit a doctor if they have symptoms of COVID-19?
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Brazil Against COVID-19 Pandemic: A Timeline Review
By James Tiburcio | May 12, 2020
By March-end, different public hospitals in the country were already reporting a situation that was bordering on chaos: hospitals that had no soap for handwash or paper towels to dry, intensivists that lacked alcohol gel, goggles or a mask. The increase in demand for services caused by the pandemic of the novel coronavirus was already testing the weakened capacity of the SUS.
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Geographical Variations in the Propagation of COVID-19
By Jean-Philippe Platteau | May 11, 2020
A striking contrast offered by the map of COVID-19 in Europe is between the relatively low rates of infections (and hospitalisations) in countries like Germany, Austria, Scandinavia (except Sweden), and Eastern Europe, on the one hand, and the relatively high rates observed in countries like Italy, Spain, France, UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, on the other.
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Beyond the Hype: Understanding how Kerala is Handling COVID-19
By V Santhakumar | May 11, 2020
Kerala government became alert and pro-active to meet the COVID-19 emergency before most other Indian states. The experience of handling the Nipah virus last year may have sounded an alarm to the administration. So, when the infection started spreading in Wuhan (China), Kerala could foresee the arrival of the virus into the state.
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COVID-19 Strategy: The Swedish Model and Lessons for India
By Ashok Swain | May 6, 2020
Sweden is treating the coronavirus crisis as a health emergency and it is the economic need, not the political expediency that is shaping the country’s policies. The number of COVID-19 patients in Sweden is quite high, still, its hospital system has not collapsed, like in Italy, nor has it gone for building new hospitals overnight, like China.
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Odisha’s Fight Against COVID-19
By Amarendra Das and Subrat K Mishra | May 5, 2020
The state has shown some first of its kind actions to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. This could be seen as the state’s learning from handling natural disasters year after year. During and post these disasters, the state has already been credited with management resulting in zero human and cattle loss. The same passion, commitment, proactiveness is visible in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.