Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to disruption in delivering routine healthcare services including routine immunization (RI) worldwide. Understanding the enablers and barriers for RI services during a pandemic is critically important to develop context-appropriate strategies to ensure uninterrupted routine services. Methods A community-based, cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in five different states of India, nested within an ongoing multicentric study on RI. Telephone in-depth interviews among 56 health workers were carried out and the data were analyzed using a content analysis method. Results During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers encountered many challenges at the health system, community and individual level when rendering RI services. Challenges like the limited availability of personal protective equipment and vaccines, deployment for COVID-19 duty at system level, the difficulty in mobilizing people in the community, fear among people at community level, mobility restrictions and limited family support, as well as the stress and stigma at individual level, were barriers to providing RI services. By contrast, the issuing of identification cards to health staff, engaging community volunteers, the support given to health workers by their families and training on COVID-19, were factors that enabled health workers to maintain RI services during the pandemic. Conclusions When addressing the COVID-19–related public health emergency, we should not lose sight of the importance of services like RI.

Background: Digital health is a multidisciplinary concept that intermingles technology and healthcare for better service provision. Recently, these platforms are getting better utilised during the COVID-19 pandemic. We attempted to understand the factors influencing the use of digital data platforms by the frontline health workers and do a situational analysis using SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threats) framework. Methods: We adopted a qualitative research method to explore both internal and external factors in a rural block of Odisha, India. 15 In-depth interviews (IDI) were conducted among the FHWs telephonically. Analysis was done using MAXQDA software. Based on findings and extensive literature review, a conceptual framework was developed.Results: The study explored that elder age, low education, less interest, fear of health problems, less experience in using applications, married, and work duplication were the internal factors causing reluctance and, user-friendliness, the language for operating, training on application use, handholding support, including troubleshooting, availability of internet, network and electric power supply were the external factors that influence the use. Further, opportunities such as the availability of IT platforms for data storage and troubleshooting, technological advancement, Government promotional initiatives and availability of resources through other programs could be strategically leveraged. Also, our study proposes strategies such as making the applications simple, informative, and user-friendly using advanced technology, better development of applications that are leveraging the "digital India" initiative. Conclusions: Exploring and understanding the situational factors and based on that, adopting context-appropriate strategies will help to achieve better and wider use of the digital platforms.

Due to the high toxicity of fluoride to humanity, it is imperative to treat fluoride-contaminatked water for human consumption. The most commonly used method for the defluoridation of water is bio-adsorption. The present study has investigated the ability of Albizia ferruginea to remove fluoride from water through adsorption. This experiment was undertaken in batch mode. The adsorption process was systematically studied regarding the influence of pH, interaction time, temperature, adsorbent loading, fluoride ion concentration and the effect of coexisting anions to understand the ideal conditions for the adsorption. The effect of different parameters viz. contact time (30-150 min), initial concentration (4-20 mg/L), adsorbent dose (50-250 g/L), mixing speed (30-150 rpm), temperature (25-450 C) has been investigated to determine the adsorption capacity of Albizia ferruginea. The data were analyzed by applying the Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption kinetics was studied from the data obtained through pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order equations. Various adsorption isotherms, such as the Langmuir isotherm model, were studied to determine adsorption capacity. The adsorption data best fitted for Langmuir isotherm and the process obeyed both pseudo-first and second order. The effectiveness of the best adsorbent was evaluated by removing fluoride contamination rapidly from wastewater. So, from the above study, it was revealed that Albizia ferruginea could be used as an efficient adsorbent for removing fluoride ions.