"The Global Coverage for a Pandemic" {This is The Least a Publication Can Offer}
There is little doubt that late 2019 will be remembered in world history as the date when COVID-19, the disease caused by a previously unknown virus, brought an unprecedented challenge to human societies and reshaped global relations. Since then, COVID-19 continues to dominate world news and capture the attention of citizens and governments alike. This is a testimony to the March 11 decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare COVID-19 a pandemic. A pandemic can be defined as an epidemic that spreads across the world much faster than expected and affects people who do not have immunity to fight it.
As an international network of reporters present across the world and speaking over 100 languages, Global Voices rose to the occasion in January 2020 and started to report on the issue in China, rapidly expanding coverage to address the various consequences of COVID-19. Given the scale and scope of the pandemic, we are now organizing our coverage based on regions (with the most recent story at the top of each section) for easier navigation.
Our goal is to present the various ways in which COVID-19 affects human and digital rights, freedom of expression, causes more mis- and disinformation, and challenges existing systems of media ecology, public health, governance, politics, global economy – from a local perspective, while keeping in mind our global readership. In this effort, we remain particularly vigilant to protect the safety and well-being of individuals and communities unfairly targeted because of a real or perceived association with COVID-19, as well as our reporters.
Global impact
World Health Organization officials criticized for ‘slow response’ and ‘pro-China’ bias as COVID-19 spreads across the world (March 1, 2020)
Central Asia and the Caucasus
COVID-19 makes first victims in Afghanistan (April 1, 2020)
Central and Eastern Europe
COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects digital rights in the Balkans (March 30, 2020)
Kosovo government first to fall in worldwide coronavirus crisis (March 26, 2020)
St Petersburg firm creates online bar for self-isolating Russians (March 19, 2020)
Churches in Greece and North Macedonia refuse to modify rituals conducive to the spread of COVID-19 (March 10, 2020)
Coronavirus-related xenophobia spreads to Central and Eastern Europe (February 15, 2020)
East Asia and Oceania
Classified data shows that China's official figure of zero domestic COVID-19 cases excludes asymptomatic carriers (March 23, 2020)
Combating ‘fake news’ in the time of COVID-19 in Myanmar (March 23, 2020)
COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: ‘…not only a city being locked down, but also our voices’ (March 21, 2020)
China government spokesperson suggests on Twitter that COVID-19 may have originated in the United States (March 13, 2020)
Does Singapore's ‘top-down’ approach’ to handling COVID-19 deserve all the praise it's been getting? (March 13, 2020)
Campaign urging Wuhan residents to show gratitude to the Communist Party leadership in fighting COVID-19 backfires (March 9, 2020)
China censors report of how China authorities hid COVID-19 genome sequence test result for 14 days (March 2, 2020)
Battered by criticism, Abe government scrambles to save Japan from COVID-19 (February 28, 2020)
Chinese censorship demonstrates it can afford the cost of the death of media (February 21, 2020)
Japan edges ever closer to a COVID-19 epidemic (February 18, 2020)
China travel ban heightens threats to Australia's trade, tourism and education sectors (February 18, 2020)
Positive energy floods Chinese social media as over 60,000 infected with COVID 2019 (February 16, 2020)
Is the coronavirus epidemic China's ‘Chernobyl moment'? (February 14, 2020)
#OustDuterte trends as Filipinos criticize the government's response to the coronavirus (February 13, 2020)
View our extensive coverage of the early stages of COVID-19 in China and East Asia here.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Forty years on, a locked-down El Salvador remembers the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero online (March 27, 2020)
Tunes in the time of the corona: A playlist from Trinidad & Tobago hits all the right notes (March 26, 2020)
Trinidad & Tobago fight against COVID-19 puts emphasis on ‘personal responsibility’ (March 15, 2020)
New COVID-19 disaster area order places a Jamaica under quarantine, but ‘not under curfew’ (March 14, 2020)
With no officially confirmed cases, El Salvador locks itself down to prevent COVID-19 (March 14, 2020)
Trinidad & Tobago clamps down as two cases of COVID-19 are confirmed (March 14, 2020)
Life in the times of COVID-19: Jamaicans adjust their lifestyle as country records second case (March 12, 2020)
A rash of ‘travel bans’ as the Caribbean gets serious about coronavirus (February 12, 2020)
South Asia
Maldives: Can a country so dependent on tourism afford a lockdown? (March 26, 2020)
India stays home for 14 hours in the fight against COVID-19 (March 22, 2020)
Quarantine woes in Bangladesh amid coronavirus fears (March 21, 2020)
Pakistan claims COVID-19 under control amidst rising figures (March 18, 2020)
Nepal postpones international events as fear of COVID-19 intensifies (March 10, 2020)
Pakistani students under lockdown in Wuhan are appealing for assistance (February 1, 2020)
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kenyan star runner Eliud Kipchoge says 2020 Olympics postponement is ‘shocking but noble’ (March 29, 2020)
Market mayhem in Uganda as COVID-19 measures upend women's lives (March 28, 2020)
Across Africa, COVID-19 heightens tension between faith and science (March 25, 2020)
As Ebola outbreak ends, coronavirus begins in DR Congo (March 22, 2020)
Tanzania tackles COVID-19 with strict measures to slow the spread (March 19, 2020)
COVID-19 in Africa: ‘Unprecedented levels of mobilization’ as nations brace for pandemic (March 14, 2020)
An Italian national is the index case of COVID-19 disease in Nigeria (February 28, 2020)
Here are useful sources of information, some regularly updated, to follow the impact of COVID-19:
A map from Johns Hopkins University for a visual overview of the global spread of COVID-19. The BBC also provides a visual guide to the pandemic.
For proper use of terms associated with COVID-19, here is a comprehensive online dictionary.
Here is a comprehensive explainer by the BBC of COVID-19 symptoms and how to protect oneself. For more, there is also an online course to understand COVID-19.
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