Pandemic preparedness and response to COVID-19 in South Asian countries

Babu, Giridhara R; Khetrapal, Sonalini; John, Daisy A; Deepa, R.; Narayan, K.M. Venkat

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.048

Cited by 56 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The health crises increased multi‐fold, and many time, the spread of the disease became uncontrolled. Though the younger population demographics to some extent helped in keeping the rate of death is lower than the developed nation, yet the challenges at socio‐economic front are much higher, that requires a massive investment in rebuilding the public health system and to facilitate socio‐economic recovery (Babu et al, 2021). The UNICEF (2021) report mentioned that during the second wave the South Asian region became highly affected with rising deaths and severe crisis of medicine, basic equipment, and facilities.…”

Section: Pandemic Response In Other South Asian Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerabilities of the Rural Poor in India during pandemic COVID‐19: Social Work perspective for designing sustainable emergency response

Bhadra

2021

Asian Soc Wrk & Pol Rev

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Poor are vulnerable, frail, battered, marginalized, voiceless, and victim of multiple social circumstances. The complex vulnerable existence always made them suffer and become double victims of any disaster, be it natural, human‐made, or biological like pandemic COVID‐19. Poverty in India is an outfall of a number of complex social realities, historical past, and present doldrums. Restrictions due to lockdown and a shrinking economy, the job market as the immediate impact caused a number of survival crises for the rural families. The situation of rural poor becomes even more aggravated, as the reverse migration and influx of population increased the consumption and demand for jobs that actually the rural livelihood sector can provide. While the pre‐existing vulnerabilities of the poor are exposed in the pandemic, the government's response toward them showed its restricted efficiency. The pandemic COVID‐19 has taken human‐life hostage and effective sustainable strategies to manage the crisis of the poor vulnerable section were essential for long‐term resolution. Thus, the professional challenge ahead is designing a sustainable strategy of working in such pandemic situations that social workers are professionally skilled to handle similar challenges.

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Section: Pandemic Response In Other South Asian Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerabilities of the Rural Poor in India during pandemic COVID‐19: Social Work perspective for designing sustainable emergency response

Bhadra

2021

Asian Soc Wrk & Pol Rev

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“…While close collaborations will be needed for the pandemic response, forming BMJ Global Health functional mechanisms of public health networking between countries under a long-term regional strategy will be required for developing a shared resilience and preparedness plan. 10…”

Section: Interconnected and Resilient Health Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stronger together: a new pandemic agenda for South Asia

et al. 2021

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“…The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, which comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, and Afghanistan, met on March 15, 2020, to address the COVID-19 crisis [11,12]. South Asian countries began implementing mitigation efforts such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and closing schools and businesses in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka in March 2020 [11]. By March 24, 2020, existing surveillance efforts in South Asia reported only 1536 cases and 22 deaths [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, South Asia displayed a particularly unique trajectory since the onset of the pandemic. First, the region was slow to build their caseload, particularly when compared to other global regions in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas [11]. Second, the significant uptick in COVID-19 transmissions in South Asia began accruing after international border lockdown policies were implemented to stop the spread of COVID-19, which forced migrant workers from South Asia to travel back to their home countries [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Interplay Between Policy and COVID-19 Outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal Trend Analysis of Surveillance Data

Welch¹,

Kulasekere²,

Prasad³

et al. 2021

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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Background COVID-19 transmission rates in South Asia initially were under control when governments implemented health policies aimed at controlling the pandemic such as quarantines, travel bans, and border, business, and school closures. Governments have since relaxed public health restrictions, which resulted in significant outbreaks, shifting the global epicenter of COVID-19 to India. Ongoing systematic public health surveillance of the COVID-19 pandemic is needed to inform disease prevention policy to re-establish control over the pandemic within South Asia. Objective This study aimed to inform public health leaders about the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, how South Asia displays differences within and among countries and other global regions, and where immediate action is needed to control the outbreaks. Methods We extracted COVID-19 data spanning 62 days from public health registries and calculated traditional and enhanced surveillance metrics. We use an empirical difference equation to measure the daily number of cases in South Asia as a function of the prior number of cases, the level of testing, and weekly shifts in variables with a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano–Bond estimator in R. Results Traditional surveillance metrics indicate that South Asian countries have an alarming outbreak, with India leading the region with 310,310 new daily cases in accordance with the 7-day moving average. Enhanced surveillance indicates that while Pakistan and Bangladesh still have a high daily number of new COVID-19 cases (n=4819 and n=3878, respectively), their speed of new infections declined from April 12-25, 2021, from 2.28 to 2.18 and 3.15 to 2.35 daily new infections per 100,000 population, respectively, which suggests that their outbreaks are decreasing and that these countries are headed in the right direction. In contrast, India’s speed of new infections per 100,000 population increased by 52% during the same period from 14.79 to 22.49 new cases per day per 100,000 population, which constitutes an increased outbreak. Conclusions Relaxation of public health restrictions and the spread of novel variants fueled the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Asia. Public health surveillance indicates that shifts in policy and the spread of new variants correlate with a drastic expansion in the pandemic, requiring immediate action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Surveillance is needed to inform leaders whether policies help control the pandemic.

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Pandemic preparedness and response to COVID-19 in South Asian countries

Cited by 56 publications

References 4 publications

Vulnerabilities of the Rural Poor in India during pandemic COVID‐19: Social Work perspective for designing sustainable emergency response

Vulnerabilities of the Rural Poor in India during pandemic COVID‐19: Social Work perspective for designing sustainable emergency response

Stronger together: a new pandemic agenda for South Asia

The Interplay Between Policy and COVID-19 Outbreaks in South Asia: Longitudinal Trend Analysis of Surveillance Data

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