Coronavirus Reads, Digest 9
India's cases nearing 3,000, and the NYC Mayor asks for a draft to get more healthcare workers to the city.
It’s Saturday, April 4th.
Bringing you a shorter, modified weekend edition.
In India, there are over 2,900 confirmed coronavirus cases in India now, over 1,000 of which are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat religious conference in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Tamil Nadu confirmed 74 new cases today. However, some good news from Bhilwara in Rajasthan, one of the early outbreak areas in India, there have been no new cases in 4 days. Their approach of an early lockdown and door-to-door screening could offer lessons for other Indian states.
The health ministry also gave out a breakdown of the age demographics of cases, and so far, 42% are between the ages of 21-40, while 17% are over 60. India’s demographics swing much younger; more than half of the country’s population is under the age of 25.
Both the Indian government and the U.S.’s CDC have issued advisories urging people to wear homemade face covers when they step out of their homes, as new research shows the virus can spread more easily in the air. (President Trump says he’s choosing not to wear one), and as many as 25% of those infected with the coronavirus could be asymptomatic (showing no symptoms).
The U.S. saw its highest one day death toll yesterday, as 1500 people died in 24 hours. New York City, with over 57,000 cases, has a quarter of the confirmed cases in the country overall. NYC Mayor de Blasio called for healthcare workers to be drafted and sent to attend to the patients in the city. Several American states with conservative governors are holding out on issuing “stay at home” orders, to the despair of public health experts. Here’s a map of which states and cities have told their residents to say home, and this interactive map of the U.S. shows how the virus could be slowly spreading across different counties.
We are ten days into India’s national lockdown, which is due to end on April 14th. These are some of the options the Indian government is considering to exit it, including a limited lockdown in certain outbreak areas and phased restoration of transport services.
PM Modi has called for the entire nation to switch off its lights on Sunday at 9pm and keep them off for 9 minutes, but such an unprecedented load to the power grid could cause a blackout. The power ministry, electric companies and state governments are scrambling to find ways to prevent this, through load shedding and measures to control voltage.
And Shoaib Daniyal reports on how the spread of the virus and the lockdown has led to conflicts between Indian states, several of whom are sealing their borders, erecting barricades, disrupting essential services.
Indian officials tasked with coordinating the response to the pandemic have uncovered that between 20-30,000 ventilators in the country are either defective or dysfunctional, reports the Indian Express.
Americans are not far behind, as reports indicate thousands of PPE shipped from the national stockpile were expired and rotten, and hundreds of ventilators broken.
Some States Receive Masks with Dry Rot, Broken ventilators, by Kim Chandler
And the data on the spread of infections or fatalities in the U.S. is not being tracked with a sex breakdown, despite the overwhelming research that COVID-19 is more fatal to men.
Does Covid-19 Hit Women and Men Differently? U.S. Isn’t Keeping Track, Alisha Haridasani Gupta
And Indians, your way is winning out. In this NYTimes Op-ed, the author urges Americans to stop using toilet paper (there are shortages and hoarding in the U.S.) which is “neither efficient nor hygienic” and use water instead. Opinion | Stop Using Toilet Paper, by Kate Murphy
Some of us might be struggling with hair-care and growth in these times. Adam Harris writes in The Atlantic about his experience learning to cut his own hair.