Covid-19: Testing times

India should make up for lost time in involving private labs

Rapid growth in the number of COVID-19 cases to more than 400 on Monday underlines the shortcomings of the Indian government and health establishment’s response to the global pandemic. Nothing underlines this better than the under-resourced policy towards testing, which runs counter to what many countries are doing. For example, more than lockdowns, the key to South Korea’s success has been a large, well-organised testing programme, combined with extensive efforts to isolate infected people and trace and quarantine their contacts. Also, unlike Singapore, which has been able to contain the disease via a liberal testing policy, India’s policy of testing