India Coronavirus Dispatch: Mumbai now has zero containment zones

How the pandemic hurt domestic workers, scores of OBC and SC families lost their sole earning member to Covid, and more-news relevant to India's fight against the pandemic

Nearly 33,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 32,937 fresh coronavirus infections on Monday, taking the cumulative caseload to 32.2 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 417 more deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 431,642. The active caseload is at 381,947, while the total recoveries have surged to 31.4 million. As many as 545 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 1.7 million were given on Sunday. Read more

Mumbai now has zero containment zones

Mumbai now has zero containment zones due to a steady decline in cases, a report in The Indian Express said. The last two slum areas, which were under containment in the K-East ward covering areas like Andheri East, Marol, Sakinaka, were removed from the tag. Containment zones are areas that have high population density and are sealed to prevent the further spread of the infection, the report said. Read more

How the pandemic hurt domestic workers 

During India’s lockdowns, domestic workers were among the worst affected as they were asked by their employers to stay home, often with little to no wages and only meagre government support, a report in the Scroll said. As cases fell in 2020, some of them got back their jobs – only to hit a roadblock again in 2021 as the second wave hit. By taking low-paid work such as cooking, cleaning, and caretaking, female domestic workers enable their employers to seek or sustain their jobs. But they are largely ignored in any discussions on the country's labour force, the report said. Read more

Over 20,000 OBC, SC families lost their sole earning member to Covid

Between April 2020 and 30 June this year, about 12,442 Other Backward Classes (OBC) households lost their sole earning member to the pandemic, while 7,727 Scheduled Caste (SC) households were similarly impacted, a report in ThePrint said. The breadwinners were aged between 18-60 years. Andhra Pradesh leads the OBC list with 4,948 such deaths, followed by Kerala with 2,100 such deaths and Gujarat with 1,934 deaths. Most of the SC families who lost their earning members were also in Andhra Pradesh (2,106 deaths), followed by Gujarat (1,457 deaths), and Maharashtra (836 deaths). The data is part of surveys conducted by the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC) and the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSCFDC), the report said. Read more

Pandemic boosts data consumption

According to PwC, the pandemic has driven demand for internet access and boosted global data consumption, an article in the World Economic Forum said. Global data consumption grew more than 30% last year compared to 2019, according to PwC. And, it's set to grow nearly as quickly this year. Video is the main driving force behind this, accounting for more than three-quarters of data consumed in 2020. Covid also accelerated existing trends in TV and online video. This resulted in a "general push toward online video and accelerated pay-TV cord-cutting". Read more