India coronavirus dispatch: Life lessons from the history of lockdowns

As India grapples with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, here are articles curated from across Indian news publications, on how citizens are dealing with the lockdown, long reads on Covid-19, and opinion pieces on ways to manage the crisis, and more…

Covid-19 PANDEMIC: CITIZENS UNDER LOCKDOWN

India lockdown diary, Day 3: Doctor dies in Mumbai, truck full of migrants, Kejriwal’s appeal.

The Centre is working in tandem with various state governments to tackle the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and to ensure that the curfew is observed diligently. This is how the states, and union territories across the country are dealing with the outbreak. Read more here

Madurai Kavalan app uses GPS tracking for the Coronavirus pandemic

Madurai-based start up, JioVio Healthcare, introduces a new feature to an in-house app to help with GPS tracking of those in mandated quarantine due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Read more here

Coping with corona virus: Big challenge for India’s 37 per cent — ‘internal migrants’

Tackling the Covid-19 pandemic is not just a medical issue, but a multi-faceted socio-economic one, and calls for commensurate measures. Read more here

Covid-19 lockdown: TV viewing time up by 8 per cent, smart phone usage by 6 per cent

With people under lockdown, TV viewing time has increased by over 70 billion minutes in India with average daily viewers growing by 32 million. Read more here

LONGREADS

Life lessons from the history of lockdowns

Lockdowns, confinement, and isolation have been successfully used against pandemics, terror, and technological disasters. What are the costs? By Ramin Jahanbegloo Read more here

OPINION

Devising a people-centric response to Covid-19, by Pinarayi Vijayan

As we make our way through the lockdown, the State has major responsibilities. It must take a leadership role in enforcing the lockdown while upholding the rights and dignity of people, it must educate the citizens on the dos and don’ts of rules to follow, and it must take all sections of society with it. Read more here

Let’s use follower’s advantage: We could learn to fight Covid-19 from South Korea, by Kaushik Basu

We have three lessons from Korea, First, you need strong leadership. Second, it is critically important to have trust between society and government. Third, the need is for nuanced policies, with the government having the courage to make course correction as it goes along. Read more here

UNDERSTANDING COVID-19

Did pangolins transmit coronavirus to humans? Could be, but scientists still not sure

Research so far indicates that the pangolin, a scaly mammal that is illegally traded, was most likely an intermediary between bats and humans, but not the only one. Read more here

Explained: How antibody test for Covid-19 is different from PCR test

To trace how infections like Covid-19 have spread so far, it is important to detect people who contracted the disease in the past and have recovered. Read more here

PODCAST

In conversation with top epidemiologist Jayaprakash Muliyil

A discussion on the 21-day lockdown, whether India already has entered the community transmission phase with Covid-19, and the steps that we are to take going forward if we are to achieve a ‘herd immunity’ to the disease that can protect the young and the elderly. Read more here

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