The Covid-19 pandemic alert
The infection is spreading both in terms of numbers and geography. Follow protocols
Covid-19 is now spreading in India at a rate quicker than any other country so far, ever since the pandemic began. India is reporting more cases every day than the United States (US) and Brazil were reporting even when the outbreak there was at its peak. India is also one of only the three nations to have had, consistently, over 1,000 deaths daily in recent days. But while cases in the other two nations appear to have plateaued, India hasn’t yet reached its peak.
There are, however, areas where India has fared much better than others. For every million residents, India has reported 2,600 cases, against around 18,000 each in the US and Brazil. The same holds true for deaths — India has 48 deaths per million against around 500 in the other two. India’s case fatality rate is 1.8%, which is not only much better than the global average of 3.4%, but also better than the US (3.1%) and Brazil (3.2%). One of the reasons for the high number of reported cases in India now is the enhanced level of testing. For the second time, the country’s daily tests crossed the million-mark on Saturday. This is a huge jump from June, when 200,000 samples were being tested a day. But while the absolute numbers are positive, the relative proportion to population still leaves room to improve. The US has conducted 250,000 tests per million, while Brazil has tested 67,000 per million; for India, this number is a little over 31,000.
But the biggest challenge is harder to denote in numbers. While the first five months of the outbreak in India saw cases largely from urban areas, the bulk of the latest wave of infections has been from the hinterland, where the health care infrastructure is much weaker. And while the lower population density may help rural areas, experts fear that there is a greater chance of cases and deaths going unreported since there are fewer labs, hospitals and trained medical professionals. The ultimate goal for a country (till a vaccine is developed and mass produced) is to prevent deaths. And though India has fared better than most nations in that aspect, it should not let its guard down. It must test, isolate and treat with even greater intensity, and spread the network of labs, hospitals and expertise to the country’s rural pockets, where they will be needed the most in coming weeks.