All the bible thumpers must be praising the glory of god and the downfall of all the Jezebels, Salomés and Magdalenes.
I hope they will help them “find opportunities to gain new skills in lower risk jobs” as recommended by the study. If India's red-light districts reopen, there could be a staggering 400,000 infections and 12,000 Covid-19 deathsin a yearamong sex workers and people living in those neighbourhoods in India, per projections by experts at Harvard Medical School and Yale School of Medicine. The study made projections for 21 red-light areas, spanning across Maharashtra, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. And the experts have urged the government to keep the areas shut as they could emerge as India's biggest hotspots. Maharashtra would be one of the worst-affected states with 9,956 cases projected — in Pune's Budhwar Peth, 4,795 cumulative cases, 688 hospitalisations, and 162 deaths. In Mumbai's Red-Light Area of Kamathipura, Grant Road, and Faulkland Road, 3,494 cases, 486 hospitalisations, and 114 deaths. The GB Road area in the national Capital could experience 2,774 cases, 386 hospitalisations and 91 deaths in such a scenario. "The combined features of a high volume of visitors, high contact rates, potentially higher infectivity of sex workers, and long-distance travel of clients across India may make the reopening of red-light areas a significant risk... Moreover, visitors to red-light areas include many truck drivers and migrant workers, who not only live locally but travel long-distances and can potentially spread the virus more broadly," stated the website of Code Red Coalition (CRC), where the key findings of the study were published. (CRC is a global group of doctors and researchers that is advising governments on how to prevent Covid-19 spread.) Dr Sahayakan, a CRC member, added: "None of the protection measures like distancing, masks, or sanitising can effectively stop Covid-19 transmission during sex work. Sex work cannot be safely practiced in red light areas in India given their nature." The study also recommended that sex workers need opportunities to gain skills that provide employment in lower-risk jobs. Roland Francis 416-453-3371
