{"id":8130,"date":"2020-05-20T18:58:10","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T18:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=8130"},"modified":"2020-05-20T18:58:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T18:58:10","slug":"covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 response fails residents of city slums"},"content":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> Having ravaged some of the world\u2019s wealthiest cities, the coronavirus pandemic is now spreading into the megacities of developing countries.<\/p>\n

Sprawling urban areas in Brazil, Nigeria and Bangladesh are all seeing Covid-19 infections rise rapidly.Given its deadly trajectory in marginalised communities of hard-hit New York and London, coronavirus may well devastate much poorer cities.Particularly concerning are the slum areas that are home to roughly a billion people \u2013 one in seven people on earth.<\/p>\n

Characterised by insecure property rights, low-quality housing, limited basic services and poor sanitation, these informal settlements aggregate risk factors that accelerate the spread of infection.Yet, our research finds, many residents of slums and squatter settlements are not getting the help they need to survive the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Overcrowding is one reason slums are known incubators of disease. Informal settlements are typically 10 times denser than neighbouring areas of the same city.<\/p>\n

The Dharavi slum in central Mumbai, for example, has some 97,000 residents per square mile, compared to 11,500 people per square mile elsewhere in the city.It is far harder to practice physical distancing, at home or on the street, in such close quarters.<\/p>\n

Most of the world\u2019s poorest urban neighborhoods additionally lack potable water and a private bathroom, making lifesaving practices such as hand-washing a challenge.To get to work \u2013 a necessity for those with very low income and no savings \u2013 many people in slums travel jammed together in vans and buses over long distances that are perfect vectors for disease.<\/p>\n

For several reasons \u2013 among them little access to healthcare \u2013 people living in informal settlements also suffer disproportionately from underlying health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, according to a 2016 special edition of the Lancet on slums.<\/p>\n

All these problems can exacerbate respiratory illnesses such as Covid-19.In Brazil, which is fast becoming a global Covid-19 epicentre, at least 1.5 million of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s 6.7 million residents live in the city\u2019s 1,000 \u201cfavelas,\u201d or slum settlements.<\/p>\n

Many favela residents lack piped water or resources even to buy soap. But Brazil\u2019s national government, which denies the severity of its outbreak, is offering very little pandemic aid.<\/p>\n

That has left community organisations to deliver food and hygiene products to Rio\u2019s poorest. Fighting coronavirus is proving difficult in Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, and its Covid-19 epicentre.No safety netThe city, Africa\u2019s biggest, is home to an estimated 26 million people. Nearly three-quarters of them live in one of Lagos\u2019 100 slums.<\/p>\n

A large proportion of those in slums subsists hand-to-mouth, working in the informal sector as street vendors, waste recyclers, artisans and the like.<\/p>\n

Such jobs offer no health insurance or pensions \u2013 no basic social safety net.As in Rio, many informal workers in Lagos have been deprived of even this meagre income during the capital\u2019s intermittent coronavirus lockdowns.Staying home to survive a pandemic is only an option if you can afford it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya: Having ravaged some of the world\u2019s wealthiest cities, the coronavirus pandemic is now spreading into the megacities of developing countries. Sprawling urban areas in Brazil, Nigeria and Bangladesh are all seeing Covid-19 infections rise rapidly.Given its deadly trajectory in marginalised communities of hard-hit New York and London, coronavirus may well devastate much poorer cities.Particularly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,2111,5,8],"tags":[939,3660,3659,3658],"class_list":["post-8130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-coronavirus-in-kenya","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19-infections","tag-response-teams","tag-slum-dwellers"],"yoast_head":"\nCovid-19 response fails residents of city slums - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Having ravaged some of the world\u2019s wealthiest cities, the coronavirus pandemic is now spreading into the megacities of developing countries\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Covid-19 response fails residents of city slums\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Having ravaged some of the world\u2019s wealthiest cities, the coronavirus pandemic is now spreading into the megacities of developing countries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-20T18:58:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/05\/zari0w25tsjqjkbats5ec571e31f3bf.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"617\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"386\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Covid-19 response fails residents of city slums\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-20T18:58:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums\"},\"wordCount\":491,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/05\/zari0w25tsjqjkbats5ec571e31f3bf.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Coronavirus\",\"Covid-19 infections\",\"Response teams\",\"Slum dwellers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Coronavirus in kenya\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/covid-19-response-fails-residents-of-city-slums\",\"name\":\"Covid-19 response fails residents of city slums - 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