Building on Vietnam’s Recent COVID-19 Success: A Job-Focused Analysis of Individual Assessments on Their Finance and the Economy

Despite the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on income and employment loss around the globe, hardly any formal study exists on household finance and future economic expectations in poorer countries. We offer an early study that aims to fill this gap from the labor market angle. We implemented and analyzed a new web-based rapid assessment survey immediately after the removal of lockdown measures in Vietnam, a low-middle income country that has received widespread recognition for its successful fight against the pandemic. We find that having a job is strongly and positively associated with better finance and more income and savings, as well as more optimism about the resilience of the economy. Further disaggregating employment along the security dimension into different types of jobs such as self-employment and jobs with permanent and short-term contracts, we find those with permanent job contracts to have fewer job worries and better assessments for the economy. Individuals with good health tend to have more positive evaluations for their current and future finance, but there is mixed evidence for those with higher educational levels. These findings are relevant for the ongoing fight against the pandemic and post-outbreak labor policies, especially in a developing country context.

An Online Survey to Evaluate Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Regarding Immuno-Nutrition During COVID Pandemic in Indians Staying in Different Countries

The objective of the study was to evaluate knowledge and attitude regarding immuno-nutrition in Indians residing in different parts of the world and to evaluate practices adopted during lockdown to boost immunity. A rapid assessment survey was conducted using Google Forms which was circulated amongst Indian community residing in different countries using various social media platforms. Data was collected from 325 Indians from 11 different countries. Participants were regrouped into 4 groups: South Asia, Europe, East Africa and Western Asia based on geographical location.About 85% participants identified most factors that either boost or suppress immunity. More than 90% participants reported vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B12, proteins and iron as the nutrients that boost immunity. Higher percentage of Indians from South and Western Asia reported that holy basil, asafoetida, cardamom, nuts and Chawanprash helped boost immunity as compared to Indians from Europe and East Africa (p<0.05).The overall minimum knowledge score obtained by participants was 45% and maximum was 100%. Highest marks were obtained by Indians from Western Asia followed by Indians from South Asia then Europe and lastly East Africa. However, there was no significant difference marks obtained by participants.

Detection of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Foci in South Ethiopia

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a major public health problem in Ethiopia. The disease is endemic in Ochollo, a village in southern Ethiopia, but there are no reports of CL in the wider area, although it is ecologically very similar. We conducted a rapid assessment survey in the South Ethiopian Rift Valley and found 100 parasitologically confirmed CL cases in 38 villages not reported endemic for CL. Approximately half of the cases were children (57%), and most lesions occurred on the face (78%) and were older than 6 months (77%). Only 2% of the people was aware of the mode of transmission, and 9% sought modern treatment at a hospital. These preliminary data indicate that CL is much more widespread than previously reported and that the disease might have a large psychosocial impact. Hence, this study calls for larger surveys across the Ethiopian highlands. Additionally, health education and treatment capacity need to be implemented.

Shelled-Molluscs Fauna at Abrolhos Bank (Brazil): Assessment of Both Total Species Richness and the Completed Distribution of Species Frequencies by Numerical Extrapolation of a Partial Survey

Numerous anthropogenic threats to the exceptionally rich coral-reef ecosystem at Abrolhos Bank (Brazil) arguably require implementing drastic conservation policy and meanwhile, urge for the prior detailed assessment of species richness and the species distribution across the Bank. Due to their unavoidable incompleteness, the already implemented “Rapid Assessment Surveys” at Abrolhos Bank deserve being completed, at least numerically, by implementing an appropriate extrapolation procedure, to avoid serious bias precisely due to ignoring both the number and the frequency distribution of those species still remaining undetected after Rapid Assessment Surveys. Complying with this concern, I report on the results of a numerical extrapolation of a previously achieved partial survey of the soft-bottom shelled-mollusc fauna at Abrolhos Bank. This numerical extrapolation provides least-biased estimates regarding not only the number of species which have remained unrecorded but, moreover, additional information on the respective frequencies of these still unrecorded species. As a result, the extrapolated total species richness at Abrolhos Bank reaches at least 435 shelled-molluscs species (instead of only 293 species actually recorded by the Rapid Assessment Survey), out of which 30 species (instead of 19) are expected to be Brazilian endemics. Accordingly, the soft-bottom shelled-mollusc fauna – an admittedly fairly reliable indicator for the whole marine biodiversity – definitely demonstrate the major biological interest of the whole reef ecosystem at Abrolhos Bank and the imperative necessity of implementing truly efficient conservation programs of this ecosystem.

COVID-19 and the Way Forward: A Story of Livelihoods from Coastal Rural Sundarbans, West Bengal

Globally around 2 billion people (⁓ 61% of the total world population) are engaged in informal sector, whereas the percentage rises to more than 80% in India (ILO, 2018). Since 25th March 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown in India due the COVID-19 pandemic has created an atmosphere of extreme uncertainty and raised several questions. Global analysts have already suggested that, for many developing countries, the economic consequences could be more crippling and devastating than the disease itself. Livelihoods are vital means of making a living. The terminology Livelihood is not synonymous to mere income generation. It encompasses people’s capabilities, assets and activities required to secure the necessities of life. Undoubtedly, globally COVID-19 has become an unprecedented shock; however, any kind of shock tends to reinforce the existing socio-economic-political and environmental stresses, problems and inequalities. Therefore, there is a need to understand how and to what extent this pandemic has affected and going to affect the lives and livelihoods of a coastal rural community entirely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, small-scale fisheries (inland and marine) and other riverine as well as forest resources for their subsistence. This paper attempts to explore the impact of COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown the livelihood choices and daily lives in the coastal rural stretches of Indian Sundarbans delta region. This study incorporates a telephonic rapid assessment survey method to understand the impact of COVID-19; for assessing the minute detailing and pathways of livelihoods, this paper refers to findings from a questionnaire-based household survey of the concerned area carried out by the author herself. The findings support the argument that the shock of COVID-19 will further aggravate the preexisting socioeconomic issues. The long withstanding local problems as well as backwardness and COVID-19 are mutually reinforcing in nature; the social cost and economic cost of this pandemic is immense. Asset loss, changes in dietary pattern and consumption, increased indebtedness, increased dependence on natural resources are some of the major findings.