Covid-19 Related Activites
The Covid-19 pandemic hit India in February 2020 and soon after Pune reported the first cases of Covid-19 infection. The case-load rose rapidly, with Pune contributing one of the highest number of cases among major Indian cities. While initially, most cases were detected within city limits, the epidemic rapidly spread to rural areas in Pune district with an increasing number of deaths and morbidity seen in these rural areas. The Government responded with a ‘lockdown’ in the last week of March 2020 along with intense surveillance, testing, treatment and isolation & quarantine measures. The Vadu Rural Health Program (VRHP) of KEM Hospital Research Centre Pune also decided to respond to this epidemic through what it does best, namely research and community engagement in rural areas as well as providing support to the public health system. We describe these activities here briefly.
Covid-19 Research Related Activities
We describe here research activities related to Covid-19. These include vaccine trials, sero-surveillance studies and a cross-sectional study to determine social drivers of Covid-19 infection in rural areas of Pune.Data collection for the cross-sectional study was completely conducted remotely through telephone.
3.COVOVAX Pediatric cohort study
5. Covid-19 Sero-Surveillance Studies
