Women poorly represented in COVID-19 task force across Africa

Just 19% members across 69 COVID-19 response committees in Africa were women  

COVID-19 and lessons from Ebola: How Senegal is confronting the challenge

Apart from imposing curfew, the West African country has adopted a comprehensive communication strategy to raise awareness  

Covid-19: Nine initiatives for the poor

Companies and non-profits are providing food and sanitation kits to the marginalised communities

Debunking 9 popular myths doing the rounds in Africa about novel coronavirus

Note: Replace ‘Africa’ with ‘India’ and they stay equally true 

COVID-19: Women issues found little space in print media, finds study

Only 4.8% of news stories monitored had anything of significance with regard to women and / or gender issues

Book Digest: Tracking COVID-19 damage to international politics, Indian economy reforms and more

From stories of climate crisis to illegal wildlife trade in China, DTE tracks new, contemporary books on environment and development from leading&…

New Zealand is on alert as COVID-19 returns. This is what we need to stamp it out again

Rapid contact tracing is going to be key to getting the virus under control. If the country is lucky, many of those infected may not have yet …

How Mumbai’s poorest neighbourhood is battling to keep COVID-19 at bay

Communities and non-profits swung into action in this tuberculosis hotspot before the government did

COVID-19 holds lessons for South Africa’s universal healthcare plans

The country’s health system will need rehab post-COVID-19 to overcome divisions and build a national health system from the bottom up

After hoarding them, developed countries will now waste 241 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines

Redistribution of surplus vaccines could avert 1 million deaths by mid-2022, mostly in developing and poor countries  

Coronavirus one year on: 2 countries that got it right, and 3 that got it wrong

UK PM had last year said he had been shaking hands with infected patients; the Indian PM announced snap lockdown with a notice of 4 hours

COVID-19 fight: Personal accountability can tip the scale

Reckless human behaviour is at the core of the current crisis: Behavioural science should be tapped into efforts to reduce disease transmission

How people-centric public health surveillance can help control COVID-19

There is an urgent need to engage with the community to capture human lives, their social and economic demography  

Progress against malaria continues to plateau: Report

Africa continues to carry the highest burden: It accounted for 94% of the world’s malaria cases and deaths in the last 20 years 

COVID-19 disruptions may have killed 228,000 children in South Asia, flags UNICEF report

Child mortality rose 15.4% in India, followed by Bangladesh (13%). Sri Lanka saw the sharpest increase in maternal deaths 

COVID-19: What will be a fair policy to distribute vaccine

No country is safe if only its own citizens are inoculated; the question of equitable distribution of a vaccine is as much a global concern as it …

COVID-19: Strategising response through locational intelligence in cities

India needs to leverage the role of Geographic Information System technology for devising strategies

COVID national emergency in the US might end early — What does this mean?

Public health emergency still in place for now; ending the emergency declaration would formally restructure the federal coronavirus response

100 days without COVID-19: How New Zealand got rid of the virus

New Zealand committed relatively early to a clearly articulated elimination strategy and pursued it aggressively

What COVID-19 vaccine side effects might I expect?

In the vast majority of cases, any side effect you feel will be over within a few days, and there is no reason for concern

Faceless and dispossessed: India’s circular migrants in the times of COVID-19

The 2011 Census said India has 454 million migrants, 54 million of whom are interstate workers. But the data accounts for a fraction of workers …

COVID-19: Bengal tops in death rate; blame it on Kolkata

Bengal mortality rate at 9%; about 68% of total deaths in state recorded in Kolkata, says data 

COVID-19: Can antigen test be a game-changer?

Unlike commonly available COVID-19 tests that use polymerase chain reaction, antigen diagnostics work by quickly detecting fragments of virus in …

How smart metering infrastructure can help distressed power sector

When electricity demand is expected to rise by 95% by 2030, India’s power sector is marred with high Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&…

COVID-19 warriors: How one man saved a newborn abandoned by a travelling migrant

Social worker Abul Kalam Azad also helped many tired, on-the-road migrants during the initial days of the lockdown