In this episode of the podcast series, Prof. Virginia Murray in a conversation with Dr. Dileep Mavalankar talks about the COVID-19 pandemic and the exposure to the virus across the world. She discusses the impact of COVID on city of London. Dr. Mavalankar shares India's fight with the virus and the results so far. They also talk about the importance of using data by governments to monitor health of the citizens and about the ground reality of COVID and its spread in India in spaces such as old age homes, subsequently leading to deaths. They also discuss in-depth about methods used by countries as they continue to fight with the pandemic, and the importance of data-driven policies. Actions taken in India, technology used to gather data and its analysis are some of the key elements of this episode. Prof. Dileep Mavalankar has been heading the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar as its Director since 2012. Dr. Mavalankar received an MBBS and MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, and MPH and Dr. P.H from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA. His work experience includes faculty and research positions in NHL Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Health in Bethesda, USA, Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, NY, USA. He has worked as consultant to many agencies including Columbia University, Mother Care Project (USA), the WHO (Geneva, Western Pacific Regional Office), UNICEF (New Delhi), DANIDA, UNDP/World Bank (India), the Aga Khan Foundation, CEDPA etc. Dr. Mavalankar has authored several publications. He has been adviser to key academic and government organizations and NGOs.Prof. Virginia Murray is public health doctor committed to improving data access and transparency for effective reporting. She was appointed as Head of Global Disaster Risk Reduction (GDRR) for Public Health England in April 2014 and in 2020 has been working additionally as a Senior Public Health Advisor for COVID-19. She is a member of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) scientific committee, co-sponsored by the International Science Council (ISC) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and Co-Chair of IRDR’s Disaster Loss Data (DATA), and currently member of CODATA Executive Committee She is co-chair of the WHO Thematic Platform Health and Disaster Risk Management Research Network. By working in collaboration with this network she has been one of the editors of the WHO Guidance on Research Methods for Health and Disaster Risk Management, published in September 2020. She is the Chair of the UNDRR/ISC Hazard Classification and Review Technical Working Group, and the report was published in July 2020. She is a visiting/honorary Professor at several universities.