South Asia is home to over 1.8 billion people with 16.1% of people living at or below U.S. $1.90 a day, 30.5% living in slums, and 15.3% being undernourished. Collectively, these issues contribute to significant public health challenges for South Asia’s population that are further compounded by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Rutgers biostatistician, Jaya Satagopan, PhD, professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health is available to speak about the impact, spread, and data available of COVID-19 in India. Satagopan is fluent in English, Tamil, and Hindi.

“Much more so than before, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic demands a strong partnership between science, society, politics and policy for effective surveillance and disease control,” said Satagopan. “India has taken measures to address this need, collecting data in the coming weeks that will demonstrate their effectiveness and will hopefully limit the adverse impact of this pandemic in India.”

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