These days a lot many articles, reports, documents, etc. are appearing in the public domain on Coronavirus infection and related issues. An attempt has been made in the present news alert to put together in one place some of the best articles, reports, blogs, webinars, podcasts, etc., which can be useful for our readers. We have divided the resources under various themes for the convenience of our readers and social media...

-RuralIndiaOnline.org ASHA workers in Haryana’s Sonipat district have been pushed to the frontlines of the fight against Covid-19 in a later-than-last-minute attempt to control a pandemic – with no safety gear and very little training Sonipat, Haryana: “Now, we must visit at least 25 households every day, each house at least four times in a month,” Sunita Rani says, “to survey for the coronavirus.” She has been making these rounds for over...

-The Indian Express Amartya Sen, Raghuram Rajan, Abhijit Banerjee write: As it becomes clear that the lockdown will go on for quite a while, the biggest worry right now, by far, is that a huge number of people will be pushed into dire poverty or even starvation by the combination of the loss of their livelihoods and interruptions in the standard delivery mechanisms. We in India worry a lot about the possible...

-Scroll.in The Central government is using outdated population figures to determine grain allocations to states under the food security law.   Millions of Indians live on the verge of hunger even in normal times. Now, with the coronavirus epidemic sweeping the world and India declaring a five week-long economic lockdown to contain it, hunger threatens an even larger population which has no income to buy food. As part of its economic central government has...

-Hindustan Times After videos of people flouting of norms of social distancing went viral, officials banned the entry of general public in Ghaziabad’s biggest government vegetable market — Sahibabad Mandi. The officials said that from now on only the wholesalers and retailers will be allowed to enter the market and operations will take place between 10pm to 7am. The decision was taken by officials when, two days ago, some videos went viral...