1. India is currently under a 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described it as a necessary measure to ensure the country is not taken backwards by 21 years. But given the economic fallout and the impact of the lockdown on the poor, Debraj Ray and S Subramanian explore in Scroll.in if there is an alternative to a total lockdown. 
  2. Police across the country have resorted to violence to enforce the lockdown. Priyanka Thirumurthy for The News Minute reports on the police excesses in South India. 
  3. With the global community blaming the communist regime in China for holding back information that led to the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing’s propaganda machine has turned its guns on the coronavirus narrative online, says this piece on Pro Publica. 
  4. Aggressive screening may have helped contain the Covid-19 spread in the United States. But a month lost to regulatory hurdles and technical flaws has ensured that the country now has the largest number of active cases of the viral infection, The New York Times reports. 
  5. Italy has recorded the highest number of deaths in the pandemic, surpassing even China. What can we learn from Italy’s mistakes? This Harvard Business Review piece traces Italy’s response to the coronavirus and the lessons. 
  6. The response to Covid-19 has typically been to limit the spread of virus by testing and counting those who have contracted it. In this essay for New Yorker, Siddhartha Mukherjee writes on why it is also important to look at the load of virus each person carries for effective intervention. 
  7. Over the last week, several experts around the world have begun to question the extreme response to the pandemic. Does science support these measures? Is there another interpretation of the pandemic data possible? Is the virus really that deadly? In Spectator, a pathology professor provides a contrarian reading.  
  8. Sporting events across the world have been cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic. But the World Wrestling Entertainment won’t budge and has decided to go ahead with its flagship Wrestlemania event without an audience. Ben Sixsmith in Spectator reports on how this decision is in line with WWE promoter Vince McMahon’s dubious reputation. 
  9. Should you have sex during a pandemic? Gonzala R Quintana Zunino has a list of dos and don’ts in the time of social distancing. 
  10. Faced with the coronavirus shutdown, more people are getting meals delivered straight to their homes. At a time of mass panic buying, the state should step in to guarantee a smooth food supply– and start by turning platforms like Uber Eats and Grubhub into a public service, Jack Cambell  writes in Jacobin.