Testing times

Without correct data, policy decisions will be difficult

For a major country with one of the world’s highest population densities, India appears to be an outlier in the Covid-19 pandemic with just over 1,100 cases till March 30. The country appears, as far as it is feasible to know, to have evaded community transmission so far. A new Standard Operating Procedure, issued by the health ministry for transporting a Covid-19 case on Sunday, refers to India’s current phase of the pandemic as “local transmission and limited community transmission”. When compared with the world’s hotspots — the US (over 140,000), Italy (over 97,000), and Spain (over 80,000) — or