COVID-19

More than half of the residents in the densely populated slums of India’s financial capital of Mumbai had been exposed to the coronavirus and developed antibodies as of early July, a city-commissioned study has found, sparking a debate over whether more testing is needed in the metropolis.

As India started to emerge from its lockdown, the exodus of daily-wage labourers from cities to their ancestral homes in rural areas surged. One reason was lack of work, since urban zones faced restrictions on commercial activity. The other was a fear of covid-19. Perhaps as many as 11 million left. As work and economic activity in cities splutters to life, however, we are seeing workers return. This reversal has implications both for the spread of covid and the urban economy.

Chile looked as if it were well prepared to deal with the new coronavirus. It's a rich country — classified as high income by the World Bank. Life expectancy is roughly 80 years — better than the United States'. It has a solid, modern health care system, and when the outbreak began spreading, officials made sure they had plenty of ventilators and intensive care beds at the ready.