Local Govt Forum

COVID-19: Lockdown across India, in line with WHO guidance UN India Normally bustling streets in cities across India were mostly deserted as the country observed the shutdown.         24 March 2020 Health India’s decision to impose a 21-day lockdown, which was announced on Tuesday, comes after a call from the UN health agency, WHO, for the country to take “aggressive action”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s order for the country’s 1.3 billion people to stay home, is an escalation of the 07:00 – 21:00 “Janata curfew” introduced on March 22, and it comes a day after the government grounded all domestic flights. Mr. Modi reportedly declared that the lockdown applies to “every district, every lane, every village”, and warned that “If you can’t handle these 21 days, this country will go back 21 years”. The future of this pandemic will be determined by what happens to densely-populated countries  Mike Ryan, ...

UNICEF sounds alarm over water cuts in Syria as efforts ramp up to prevent COVID-19 spread © UNICEF/Masoud Hasan Two young children wait to collect water trucked in by UNICEF from other areas of the Middle East to Tal Tamer, Syria. (16 October 2019)         23 March 2020 Humanitarian Aid The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its relief partners in  Syria  are warning that water disruptions in the country’s war-battered north-east could exacerbate risks posed by the global coronavirus pandemic.  In statement from Damascus,  Fran Equiza ,  UNICEF  Representative in Syria,  said  on Monday that the water supply from the Allouk station – the main source of water for some 460,000 people – has been interrupted It is the latest in a series of pumping disruptions over the past weeks, he said. “The interruption of water supply during the current efforts to curb the spread of...