Money Can Buy Some Protection From Coronavirus, But What About The Homeless?

Children play next to a drain filled with plastic and other filth, in a slum in New Delhi. Is it really possible to maintain good hygiene??

A number of coronavirus cases in India rising day by day. The total number of confirmed cases in India stand at 149 so far. Three people have died from COVID-19 pandemic.

The water crisis hits the poor particularly hard; wealthy people can pay for water from private sources, but those living in slums can't afford the same.

Most of these people can't afford to buy hand sanitizers, that the rest of the world seems to be hoarding.

Hundreds of thousands of people wait in line every day to fill buckets from government water trucks. Hospitals and schools struggle with clean water supplies. People are forced to wash utensils and clothes in dirty water. This kind of water will cause more diseases, instead of warding off the virus if they use it to wash their hands,

Millions of homeless people and urban poor who live in thousands of slums across major cities and towns are at heightened risk of contracting the coronavirus due to their dire living conditions, housing experts said on Tuesday.

Coronavirus has infected about 180,000 people worldwide and killed more than 7,000, according to Reuters.

According to the United Nations, globally, about 1.8 billion people live in inadequate housing and homelessness.

"Proximity is an important driver of infection, and low-income settlements in many cities of the Global South are very densely populated," said Cecilia Tacoli, a researcher at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development.

While hand-washing is a basic precaution against the virus, about 40% of the world's population does not have?water and soap at home to be able to do so, according to UNICEF.