Arun Kumar speaks to The Hindu about how with all the existing issues, the population in M East Ward is more vulnerable to the novel coronavirus. Government records peg the population of M East below nine lakh, but our assessment shows it is nearly 12 lakh.
Discrepancies in the screening of high-risk contacts of Covid-19 patients in some of Mumbai’s most congested areas have become a cause for concern, as they could lead to further spread of infection. In conversation with Hindustan Times, Arun Kumar says that as people with weak immunity or compromised lungs are most susceptible to Covid-19, it is important to isolate them immediately to break the chain of infection,
Apnalaya raised funds for insurance cover to its volunteers, who go from door to door distributing ration. Arun Kumar speaks to The Hindu, about how we didn’t “feel right” about the fact that while we were safe in our homes, our volunteers were out there, risking everything. “All our staffers have medical cover.”
Stemming the spread of the pandemic in the city’s slums and congested areas is turning to be one of biggest challenges for the state and city administration. Arun Kumar tells Hindustan Times there is an urgent need to recognise that different pockets or wards of the city are differently equipped to handle the challenges thrown up by the pandemic.
n this Hindustan Times article, Arun Kumar says that we need a granular strategy which is basically a different for different areas. “There are only two hospitals here that are overburdened with Covid-19 cases to an extent where they had to shut the OPDs. Patients are being turned away in a ward that has had a health crisis for years.”
The insistence on individualised identification by donors throws up several questions on dignity of data and privacy. In this article for The Quint, Arun Kumar and Raghunandan Hegde talk about The ‘Responsible Data Policy’ developed by Apnalaya and what elements it is based on.
The insistence on individualised identification by donors throws up several questions on dignity of data and privacy. In this article for IDR, Arun Kumar and Raghunandan Hegde talk about The ‘Responsible Data Policy’ developed by Apnalaya and what elements it is based on.
This South China Morning Post article talks about how with one toilet per 1,200 people, not enough clean drinking water and outbreaks of drug-resistant tuberculosis, the Govandi slums make health officials nervous. Yet fewer than 200 of the area’s 800,000 or so inhabitants have been tested for coronavirus – a shortfall which could be masking its true spread
