As India fights coronavirus, it must ensure equitable access to tests

A government's response to the pandemic should be based on public health science, which thrives on scrutiny and debate, writes Dr Chandrakant Lahariya.

India reported its first case of COVID-19 on January 30. Six months later, more cases are being reported than ever on nearly every day, and India’s case-load curve has stayed stubbornly on the rise.

The collective strategy to ‘test, trace, treat’ has formed the bedrock of most governments’ response to the pandemic. India has been ramping up testing, implementing ‘trace’ in the form of contact tracing, and scaling up treatment services through additional beds--in ICUs with and without ventilators, in hospitals with and without oxygen, and in isolation facilities.

But on July 31, India had had nearly 1.7 million cumulative