Serving Rural Communities Experiencing Homelessness During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Adaptations of a Student Driven Telehealth Model

Abstract

The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic varied greatly, with significant regional variations in the frequency and intensity of the public health measures taken to combat it. India was one of the worst affected nations worldwide, with 420,000 reported deaths having occurred due to SARS-CoV-2 infection by the end of July 2021. Given that merely 6.8% of the population had been fully vaccinated by then, restrictive measures continue to play a critical role in late 2021. Adherence to World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) and national COVID-19 guidelines was extremely heteregenous throughout the country. Social and behavioural impact of the measures employed by administrative authorities in India to control the spread of COVID-19 on different strata of the population were widely varying. Personal beliefs, influenced by religious and cultural factors, exarcebated the challenges faced by the administration in enforcing public health measures. The dispersal of information by government bodies and its acceptance by the public was severely impacted by the deep mistrust that had accrued in the general populace owing to agitations against the state’s policies about citizenship and agriculture. This opinion piece explores the interplay between the public health mitigative measures enforced by administrative institutions in India and the socio-economic and behavioral obstacles that challenged federal and state efforts.