How did India fare in coping with Covid-19 in the first year of the pandemic? In the early days, when almost nothing was known about the v...
How did India fare in coping with Covid-19 in the first year of the pandemic?
In the early days, when almost nothing was known about the virus, there was much speculation that India would come out without experiencing the worst of Covid-19. A supposed in-built immunity and the high summer temperatures on the subcontinent would all help the country escape relatively unaffected. These unverified expectations led not only to a neglect of early precautionary measures like the contact tracing (and not just screening) of travellers returning from abroad, but also to the expression of plainly unscientific opinions on containing the virus.
In the event, India has felt the full brunt of Covid-19. The bald figures are that, as of 7 December 2020, 9.70 million Indians were infected by Covid-19 infections, of whom 1,40,974 have died. India registered the second largest number of cases (after the US) and the third highest number of deaths (after the US and Brazil). Given the size of India’s population, this scale of infections and deaths should have been expected.
In relative terms – by cases per million population or deaths per million population – India fares much better than what the absolute numbers suggest.
Helped by an age structure that weighs in...
