Despite Covid-19’s downward trajectory in India, two worries remain
Researchers are not resting easy yet. Representational image. | Niharika Kulkarni/Reuters
When India went into lockdown in March 2020, the fear of Covid-19 swiftly spreading through a densely populated country of 130 crore people was dangerously real.
A harsh lockdown, one of the strictest in the world, created a humanitarian crisis of its own, pushing millions of migrant workers to take arduous journeys back home on foot. But the possible catastrophic impact of the pandemic was considered greater in magnitude by the government.
Nearly 11 months on, the Covid-19 infections and fatalities in India tell a different story.
Factors such as a younger population, early lockdown and some level of general immunity may have helped India and other South Asian countries keep the Covid-19 mortality rate down compared to other nations, says a study.
Bengaluru-based epidemiologist Dr Giridhara R Babu and researchers from the Philippines and the US conducted the study, which was recently published in the journal Science Direct.
The South Asian region comprises eight countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and is home to one-fifth of the world’s population. It accounts for 21 per cent of the reported Covid-19 cases in the world and 11 per cent of the deaths. Despite low level of pandemic preparedness, the countries have done well in mounting an appropriate response, the study notes.