Stay Safe! An Information Archive to Help Take Care of Yourself, Your Family and Your Community during COVID Pandemic

d . Featured Article(s)

• How Do 1.8 Billion Homeless and 3.0 Billion With No Water Access Stay Home, Wash Hands? And worse still, in over 50 recent financial commitments made by donor agencies to developing countries, only 6 of them have any mention of hygiene, complains WaterAid, an international non-governmental organisation, focused on water, sanitation and hygiene.
• From ‘COVID Toes’ to Hives, These Are the Skin Conditions Dermatologists Think Could Be Signs of Coronavirus: In late March, an Italian physician submitted a letter to the editor of the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, describing skin conditions that affected about 20% of 88 COVID-19 patients analyzed in the Lombardy region of Italy. Most of them developed a red rash on their torsos, while a few suffered hives or blisters resembling chickenpox. Then, in early April, a dermatology organization representing more than 400 French dermatologists issued a statement noting that among probable COVID-19 patients they had seen skin symptoms including hives, red rashes and frostbite-like lesions on the extremities. And finally, in mid-April, in a letter to the editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, a group of Italian physicians described a chickenpox-like rash as “a rare but specific COVID-19-associated skin manifestation.”
• “Time To Lift India’s Lockdown”: Harvard Medical School Doctor: Speaking to NDTV, Dr Vikram Patel, a Harvard Medical School doctor , says it’s time for India to lift the lockdown. “Don’t panic about curves and instead put into place the necessary steps to contain the pandemic after the lockdown lifts,” he said. Having more cases after the lockdown is inevitable, he adds.
• Coronavirus | Metrowater tests show prevalence of viral RNA in sewage collected from Chennai: For the study, sewage samples were randomly collected from five sewage pumping stations across the city and were analysed for the presence of the COVID-19 viral RNA. The samples were tested through the RT-PCR technique at two accredited labs. According to sources, the presence of the COVID-19 viral RNA was detected in two samples and a correlation of confirmed cases was also established in the locations from where samples were lifted.
• Test Kit Shortage: ICMR’s Crucial Mistakes Wasted India’s Lockdown: ICMR was put in charge of COVID-19 testing on February 3 2020. Two months later, the agency is still struggling to source enough tests, compromising India’s fight against the novel coronavirus.
• How a Device Used to Treat Sleep Apnea Is Helping COVID-19 Patients in Britain: At a hospital in England’s Warrington, doctors told DW how severely ill coronavirus patient showed recovery signs after they helped her breathe through a device which is used to treat sleep apnea. Doctors used this device as an alternative to a ventilator.
• COVID-19: Rural UP girls wait for schools to reopen to get sanitary napkins: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the subsequent nationwide lockdown have left several without basic essentials, particularly in rural areas. Access to one such essential commodity for women — sanitary napkins — has been hit hard in the rural pockets of Uttar Pradesh.
• Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience: This report from Edmond J. Safra Centre for Ethics at Harvard University, puts forth “Massive Scale Testing, Tracing, and Supported Isolation (TTSI) as the Path to Pandemic Resilience for a Free Society”.
• Global coronavirus death toll could be 60% higher than reported: Mortality statistics show 122,000 deaths in excess of normal levels across 14 countries analysed by the FT.
• Coronavirus Lockdown: Coming out of the shadow pandemic: The metaphor of Lakshman Rekha that the Prime Minister used to ask people to stay at home in his address to the nation announcing the lockdown and the need for physical distancing was unfortunate. For it is the age-old invisible patriarchal construct rooted in rigid caste and religious frameworks that, for too long, has defined the woman’s place within the family, the home and in society.
• The ‘worst’ of Covid-19 is yet to come warns World Health Organization – video: Trust us, the worst is yet ahead of us,’ warned WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus about the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Although he did not specify exactly what the worst could look like, the WHO has previously warned of the future spread of the virus throughout Africa. However, new research suggests that only a tiny proportion of the global population – maybe as few as 2% or 3% – appear to have antibodies in the blood. Ghebreyesus cautioned countries that have began loosening lockdown laws, saying ‘easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country’.
• The lifeline pipeline: While a safe, effective vaccine is still more than a year away, researchers are rushing to repurpose existing drugs and non-drug therapies as well as testing promising experimental drugs that were already in clinical trials. More than 70 vaccine candidates are also in development around the world, with at least five in preliminary testing in people. This article looks at some of the drugs, vaccines and other therapies in development.
• List of articles that previously appeared in the Featured Article(s) section

f. Featured Article(s)

• Migrants Crisis : AP HC Says If Court Doesn’t React, It Would Be Failing In Its Role; Issues Slew Of Directions: “This Court notices that hundreds of migrant labours with their children and baggage are walking on the National Highways… If at this stage, this Court would be failing in its role as a protector and alleviator of suffering. Their pain has to be alleviated at this stage.”

• No Migrant Should Be Denied Opportunity to Travel Back Only Because of Incapacity To Pay Rail Fare: Karnataka HC: “At a time when the migrant workers who have made such a huge contribution are facing distress, both the Central and State Government must come forward to help them to ensure that at the earliest, they return back to their home States”

• Coronavirus: After Karnataka High Court rap, BBMP sets up ward-level crisis cells: The joint commissioners of some zones wrote to the ward-level officers, saying that the cells must conduct meetings and upload the minutes on the BBMP website.

• Denial of Access to Food to Poor Aggravates Lockdown Distress: Delhi HC Passes Directions For PDS Shops: The remarks were made in a PIL filed by Delhi Rozi-Roti Adhika Abhiyan, raising concerns over widespread violations in the implementation of the National Food Security Act.

• Karnataka HC Rejects Plea Seeking Direction To State/Union Govt To Transport Migrant Labourers To Their Homes: The plea claimed that it is a violation of Art 21 of the Constitution of India and Sec 61 of the Disaster Management Act by the State and Central government in not providing transport to the migrant workers to travel back home. Moreover, there is no science in locking them down even though they are asymptomatic of COVID-19.
• Covid-19: Antique laws return to fight a modern disease: The Covid-19 outbreak has breathed life into antiquated laws, including a 19th century colonial statute that gives authorities extraordinary powers to do just about anything to anybody to combat a contagious disease while offering no legal remedy.