WITH ITS POOR PUBLIC health system, India ranks amongst the lowest in the world in terms of testing rates per million population for COVID-19. The lockdown from March 25, extended on April 14 up to May 3 and subsequently to May 17 with a partial opening up, gave the government time to work out a strategy and also reduced the burden on hospitalisations. While the spread of the virus may have been contained to an extent, there is little certainty on whether it has been suppressed.
Professor Srinath Reddy, who is a member of the 21-member high-level technical committee of public health experts, chaired by NITI Aayog member Dr. V.K. Paul, spoke to Frontline about the limitations of testing in the general population, the importance of random sampling, surveillance of influenzalike illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), and the impact of physical distancing on the poor. Excerpts:
The experiences of dealing with the outbreak are varied across countries, particularly with regard to the extent of lockdown measures, scale of testing, and the relative weightage given to these two. The government’s current strategy is to expand testing, which is also what the WHO recommends. Have we, however, lost precious time by not scaling up testing during the 30 days of the lockdown? Given the limitations of both an extended lockdown and of testing a 1.3 billion population, what options does India have going forward?
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