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Need Help With Covid-19 Tech? This Nonprofit Connects Volunteers with Governments

Kate Elizabeth Queram

April 15, 2020 |

Route Fifty |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States

As the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the strain on governments to acquire more physical resources like personal protective equipment, state and local governments have also been faced with a growing need for tech resources to track data and develop platforms to share that data. Fortunately, scores of tech-savvy volunteers are lining up to help these governments, and a non-profit called U.S. Digital Response is pairing volunteers with governments.

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How Greece is beating coronavirus despite a decade of debt

Helena Smith

April 14, 2020 |

The Guardian |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Greece

Greece took a proactive approach to contain the coronavirus – screening people as they entered the country even before any confirmed cases had been reported and then quarantining anyone returning from Spain in hotel rooms – and it appears so far to be working. The country's approach, which as been lauded by many as "textbook crisis management," also leveraged the crisis "to enact long overdue digital reforms" that have helped to eliminate red tape and make processes more efficient.

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The City That Has Flattened the Coronavirus Curve

Russell Berman

April 12, 2020 |

The Atlantic |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Early data is showing that San Francisco's proactive and aggressive approach to containing the spread of COVID-19 is working. Once regarded as overly aggressive and premature, the mayor's decision to declare a state of emergency and ban gatherings of groups of more than 1,000 people prior to the confirmation of any cases in the area, is now emerging as a model for how to handle a public health crisis.

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How Europe manages to keep a lid on coronavirus unemployment while it spikes in the U.S.

Michael Birnbaum

April 11, 2020 |

The Washington Post |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: France

European countries like France and Germany have been able to keep their unemployment rates low because of pre-existing programs that have been called to action during COVID-19. In France, the government subsidizes up to 84% of wages to incentive companies not to lay their employees off. In Germany, their short-time work program pays up to two-thirds of employee pay. While not an inexpensive method, some say it could help their economies replenish quicker after the pandemic.

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Greece Shows How to Handle the Crisis

Ferdinando Giugliano

April 10, 2020 |

Bloomberg |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: Greece, Athens

The speed of the response matters in mitigating the public health impact of a pandemic. Greece, which acted to restrict non-essential movement faster than countries like Spain and Italy, has sufewera fewer cases of COVID-19. Alongside enacting containment policies only days after its first cases, Greece has been able to prepare its emergency medical system by recruiting additional doctors and staff.

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The big lesson from South Korea's coronavirus response

Christina Thornell Danush Parvaneh Ranjani Chakraborty Mac Schneider

April 10, 2020 |

Vox |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: South Korea

Having learned lessons from the 2015 MERS outbreak, South Korea was quick to implement both widespread testing and contact tracing at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although cases were only just beginning to be reported in the country, government officials were already working with bioengineers to create test kits in order to "prepare for the worst."

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Sweden's government has tried a risky coronavirus strategy. It could backfire.

Alex Ward

April 09, 2020 |

Vox |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Sweden

Where government restrictions are lax, residents adopt social distancing measures voluntarily to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Sweden, the trust between much of the country’s population and a public health system disinclined to advise for long-term shutdowns at the national level has left residents and businesses to enact social distancing and sheltering measures more gradually. In the long-term, there appears to be a relationship between Sweden’s relatively higher caseload and voluntary containment policies when compared to its neighbors.

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What a Solidarity Economy Looks Like

Paul Katz Leandro Ferreira

April 09, 2020 |

Boston Review |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Brazil, Maricá

The local government in Maricá, a small municipality in Brazil, is being said to have initiated "the most ambitious city-level response to COVID-19 in Brazil, and one of the most notable in the world." Even before the coronavirus spread, the city worked on the premise of mutual aid, which included a universal basic income and a solidarity economy. In the context of the coronavirus, these proactive policies are now emerging as examples of how a democratized economy can result in a region being better positioned to withstand a public health crisis.

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How South Korea is running a nationwide election in the midst of a pandemic

Suhyoon Lee

April 07, 2020 |

Quartz |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: South Korea, Seoul

While countries around the world have delayed elections due to lockdown measures and fear of further infections, South Korea plans to go ahead with its nationwide elections, and the country does not have to rely on mail-in ballots to pull it off. Thanks to stringent testing, contact tracing, and isolation, the infection rate is currently low. The government also plans to disinfect polling stations, provide hand sanitizer, check temperatures of voters, and encourage mask-wearing and social distancing.

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New Zealand isn't just flattening the curve. It's squashing it.

Anna Fifield

April 07, 2020 |

The Washington Post |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: New Zealand

New Zealand has managed to not just flatten the curve, but has shown signs of eliminating the coronavirus thanks to rapid interventions taken by the government. Heeding the outcomes in the U.S. and Italy, the country used a comprehensive and aggressive approach which included shutting their borders down to tourists, mandating a 4-week lockdown, and announcing a coronavirus response alert plan.

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