-National Herald Dr Anoop Saraya, Head of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition Unit at AIIMS, said success of any advisory group of scientists depended on a culture of openness, independence and diversity of opinion Slamming the Narendra Modi government for ‘mishandling’ the response to COVID-19, asenior AIIMS doctors, has written in a letter to the editor of Indian Journal of Medical Sciences that there were confusing signals on how to deal with the...

A recent survey conducted by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) -- a Delhi-based non-profit organisation -- shows how persons with disabilities in the country were disproportionately affected by the COVID–19 crisis. The report by NCPEDP has observed that persons with disabilities, particularly those from economically deprived sections, went through severe hardship during the lockdown. Without sufficient access to food or money, many of them faced hunger...

-The Hindu Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is a cashless/paperless healthcare access service for the poor and vulnerable families. Only 2,132 people have availed or are now undergoing treatment for COVID-19 under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), India’s cashless/paperless healthcare access service for the poor and vulnerable families, at a time when India has over a lakh cases, according to figures released AB-PMJAY on Wednesday. Testing for and...

Most reports and studies by official agencies, international think tanks and private entities indicate the cataclysmic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy and society. They anticipate that lockdowns imposed by various countries across the globe to reduce the exponential diffusion of COVID-19 (i.e. for flattening the curve by social distancing and quarantines) would adversely affect economic growth and disrupt supply chains in most sectors, on top of causing...

-The Hindu They are at the bottom of the pyramid and have little access to healthcare, say migration experts S. Irudaya Rajan and Ginu Zacharaia Oommen. Migrants labourers have been among the worst hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most Indian migrants in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are at the bottom of the pyramid in their host countries. Infected in large numbers, and with limited access to healthcare, that is...