India's sudden drop in coronavirus cases has puzzled disease experts
Feb 04, 2021, 08:04 AM
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Partha Sarkar/Xinhua/Getty Images
India's daily coronavirus cases have plummeted since September.
The nation is now reporting just 9 daily cases per one million people, among the lowest per-capita rates in the world.
Experts say the sharp decline in cases is puzzling — but the difficulty of recording rural infections, combined with strict public-health measures, may offer some explanation.
At the start of the pandemic, few countries were more ripe for a major coronavirus outbreak than India.
Not only is India the world's second most populous country, it's also one of the densest, with around 1,200 people per square mile. Cases there climbed steadily from April through September, reaching a peak of nearly 100,000 daily cases on September 16.