From 500 cases to 57 lakh. Six months after a nationwide lockdown, COVID-19 is spreading fast across the length and breadth of India with more testing and developments on the vaccine front but no clarity on when the disease will be controlled, say scientists.
On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown for the entire country, stating it was the only way to break the chain of infection. At the time, the number of people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus was a little over 500 and the death toll 12.
Six months on, India has the second highest number of cases in the world after the US with a tally of 57.32 lakh cases, 86,508 people testing positive in a day and a total of 91,149 fatalities, according to Union Health Ministry figures on Thursday.
As COVID-19 rages — and even laypersons get conversant with the complexities of RT-PCR tests versus the cheaper but…