India's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

India, a country of 1.3 billion, has been able to limit the number of deaths to less than 200 in the 10 weeks since the first COVID-19 case was detected. Reported cases in India are much lower than the global incidence rate. The pandemic has also been contained geographically with negligible "community" transmission.

1. The whole country has been placed under a lockdown since March 25 for 21 days. The lockdown, which has met an unprecedented and voluntary nationwide response, is meant to break the transmission through social distancing. Prior to the lockdown, on March 19, the nation had placed itself under a "Janata" or people's curfew. The extent of the lockdown and the compliance it has received are unique.

2. It was an India specific crisis response measure tailored to Indian conditions and has demonstrated results. Government, central and states, have used this period to trace and isolate positive cases and their contacts. The graph of COVID 19 cases has "flattened." Cases are doubling in a little under 4 days. Slide 1 demonstrates the projections of the trajectories of pandemic had there been no lockdown or only a partial lockdown. The facts speak for themselves.

3. This trajectory would have been even "flatter" had it not been for the cluster of infections arising from the Tablighi Jamat congregation in New Delhi. The transmission by this group caused the rate of doubling of cases to speed up to 3.6 days whereas infections would have doubled every 5.4 days without this factor.

4. The lockdown was not the beginning but the logical continuation of a strategy. Surveillance at points of entry (airports, major and minor ports, land borders) was initiated on January 17, 2020. Visa and travel restrictions were imposed...