Rio’s favelas turn to technology to fight underreporting of coronavirus cases

A worker disinfecting the Turano favela in an effort to curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Rio de Janeiro. — AP

RIO DE JANEIRO: Rio de Janeiro has more than 640 deaths from coronavirus in its favelas, a new information dashboard showed on July 9, part of an effort to combat underreporting of the disease in the city’s slums.

The dashboard, a collection of charts and information arranged in a graphic display, aggregates coronavirus data from about 120 of Rio’s estimated 1,000 poor neighbourhoods, said Theresa Williamson, head of Catalytic Communities, a non-profit that created the counting system with local groups.