Maria Theresa ‘Tess’ Panizales tells how "when I wrote this poem, my thoughts were on home care nurses. As I reflect on this today, it's about the NURSE  — wherever you are."

Maria Theresa ‘Tess’ Panizales, DNP, RN, has 35 years of nursing experiences from academia, public health, hospital and healthcare corporate leadership and management roles. She has most recently served — prior to the COVID-19 outbreak — as a health care consultant for an international healthcare management firm based in Malta. She also volunteers internationally. Based on her latest work in Mongolia, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree — ‘Honoris Causa’ — in June of 2017. Tess has extensive research publication in peer-reviewed journals and has presented in various international and national conferences. She completed her Doctor in Nursing Practice as a Public Health Nurse Leader at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

          How did Mumbai's sprawling slum of Dharavi draw praise from the World Health Organization in July for its "aggressive action" in containing the coronavirus while the rest of the country's cases continue to soar? 
At the moment, India is third behind Brazil and the United States in confirmed coronavirus infections however, according to Bloomberg News, cases are climbing at the fastest rate in the world. Due to a combination of customized solutions, community involvement and perseverance, Dharavi has managed to escape in the midst of the crisis and the world should take notes. 
          The odds were staked against the slum, located in the epicentre of the country's cases and 99% of the city's ICU beds occupied by mid-June. Approximately 1 million people are packed inside Dharavi's one-square-mile area. The strict lockdown first imposed in March, left thousands of the slum's daily-wage residents on the verge of destitution.  Conventional solutions such as social distancing and contact tracing became near impossible to enforce. So how did Dharavi earn its praise? Read the full article HERE.