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  • After the pandemic, doctors want their new robot helpers to stay

    Covid-19 has accelerated technological innovations and robots are being used to minimize the virus’ transmission. Mobile disinfectant units using UV light to break apart the virus’ genetic material are in use at some hospitals, airports, hotels, and food banks. They clean surfaces faster and with less risk than humans. Robots are also doing initial patient in-takes at hospitals to minimize transmission and identify critical cases, and telepresence bots, essentially i-pads on wheels, allow patients to explore outside their quarantined spaces. Users do have to contend with occasional technological glitches.

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  • In Mathare, clean water is music, as Billian shields the Kenyan slum against COVID-19

    In Kenya's rural communities and densely populated areas, accessing sanitation and hygiene methods can be difficult, but in one slum, a nonprofit organization has teamed up with a group of young men in the community to help increase access during the Covid-19 pandemic. Together, they are providing free water and food vouchers to families and setting up hand washing stations throughoutut the area.

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  • Vietnam has 0 coronavirus deaths. Here's why.

    Vietnam reacted swiftly to the approaching pandemic, screening travelers from Wuhan, then banning all visitors from China, mandating masks, producing a catchy hand-washing video, and conducting extensive testing, with mandatory quarantines of infected people. The country of 97 million had just a few hundred cases and no deaths in the pandemic's first six months, even though its public health system is not regarded as extraordinary. As a result of its success at containment, Vietnam was one of the first in the region to relax social distancing and reopen its economy.

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  • Paradise Lockdown: How Thailand's Phuket Island flattened its coronavirus curve

    Despite devastating economic consequences, Thailand’s quick and hardline response to early signs of COVID-19 spread contained the virus and within weeks limited the country’s infections to just over 3,000 as of July 1, a far better record than nearby countries. Tourism-dependent Phuket Island was Thailand’s only province to impose a total lockdown for more than one month. Thanks to aggressive travel restrictions, contact tracing, and quarantines of possibly infected residents and travelers, the stringent measures paid off as restaurants and shops began reopening in early May.

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  • SF contact tracing team asks those who have been exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine for 14 days

    San Francisco public health officials added to their staff of 25 experienced investigators to form a team of more than 100 contact tracers to try to identify and isolate new cases of COVID-19. In the second two weeks of June 2020, the expanded team reached 82% of COVID cases and 85% of those people's contacts, not far off from the 90% goals set at the start. City lawyers, librarians, and others were drafted to the cause, with 276 people receiving contact-tracer training. One gap in the agency's work is not being able to monitor and enforce compliance with quarantine orders once contacts are found.

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  • Some Swedish care homes have had no cases of Covid-19 – what did they do right?

    The handful of Swedish elderly care homes that protected residents from COVID-19 infection shared some common traits: they improved hygiene practices, isolated possibly infectious staff, stocked up on protective equipment, and limiting outsiders’ access to the homes. Although luck may have played a role and it is not possible to be certain about success factors, the COVID-free homes all seemed to have management that took quick action without awaiting government mandates.

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  • How Hong Kong beat coronavirus and avoided lockdown

    Hong Kong's aggressive, early response to COVID-19, informed by the SARS scare of 2013, helped the densely populated city limit infections to about 1,200 as of late June without a comprehensive lockdown. A number of measures get the credit, including a travel ban on visitors, thorough contact tracing and close tracking of people in quarantine, investigations of every case, and most especially its culture – respecting others' safety and a willingness to wear face masks and listen to public health authorities. Fairly early on, Hong Kong was able to relax many of the social distancing regulations.

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  • How countries without governments are relying on WhatsApp to tackle COVID-19

    Digital platforms allow Syrian doctors living abroad to assist over-burdened local doctors deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Conflict has severely limited Syria's health services, so NGOs use online platforms like Zoom and WhatsApp to allow Syrian doctors abroad to provide consultations, deliver trainings, and share resources - including a daily forum for local doctors to get second opinions on cases. Thousands of volunteers have joined and organizers think this model can work in other conflict areas if local agents are engaged, they have the trust of the population, and there is the technical capacity.

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  • Bridging the gender gap through groundwater monitoring in a Rajasthan village

    A group of farmers in India have been trained to monitor their village’s groundwater levels to help its residents make more informed decisions about irrigation based on water availability. The farmers-turned-researchers are known as “Bhujal Jaankars” and they monitor rainfall, dam water levels, and water quality to notify residents so they can plant crops that don’t require a lot of water. While there is a lack of gender diversity in the group, they are working on developing training to include more functional literacy skills to encourage participation from others.

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  • Into Their Own Hands: Kibera, Kenya's Largest Slum, Tames COVID-19

    The densely populated region of Kibera in Kenya has managed to slow the spread of Covid-19 and protect vulnerable residents despite facing "overcrowding and unhygienic conditions" due to communal and collaborative efforts from local residents, the government and non-governmental organizations. These efforts have included an information campaign, the implementation of hygiene stations and community-delivered water to each household.

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