We all remember the early days when the news of the COVID-19 pandemic was being discussed over chai. Months have passed since the pandemic has turned into a worldwide crisis bringing daily routines to a grinding and extended halt.  In a country that numbers over a billion, the second most populated nation of the world, India was standing at a precipice, staring down at an unimaginable healthcare crisis fearing morbidity and mortality. Then came the lockdown and the slow ticking of the numbers on the ever-climbing graph of COVID-19 cases.

“ADAAB, the whole world is gripped by coronavirus and most important in the fight against it is correct news and information,” Manal Shakeel, doing her PhD in Biology, tells her Urdu audience on YouTube. She is among the 15 researchers from National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, who are reaching out to the vernacular audience with information on the spread of Covid-19, while trying to dispel myths around it.

Four Indian research institutes have collaborated with the Global Consortium of Chemosensory Researchers (GCCR) to collect data via an online survey (http://gcchemosensr.org/) to find the connection between chemical senses and the novel coronavirus. The investigation will determine if anosmia is a reliable ‘early indicator’ of the disease, and when and how the change or loss of sense occurs.

To the range of symptoms attached to COVID-19, scientists are now considering “loss of smell''.

The Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster (BLiSC) has announced that it will soon start proposing projects intended to achieve an immediate and medium-term response to the COVID-19 outbreak.