One word missing from PM Modi's impressive speech yesterday (24 March,2020) was testing.
While we know the numerator (cases,deaths),we do not know the denominator (actual infected cases,regions). So is the mortality rate 4% or 0.4% ? Your guess is as good as mine. And unless we can measure,we cannot manage. Lockdown India appeals to the mindset of centralised Indian regime. Unlike the previous adventure of demonitisation socialdistancing will play a vital role in flattening the pandemic curve. However,we need to learn not just from dictatorships like China but also from liberal Asian democracies like South Korea. Early testing,tracing and mapping has truly flattened the curve in Korea. Many people believe that we are well into Stage3 of pandemic and we do not have any evidence to support/oppose the belief. With growing private capacity for coronavirus testing & decreasing cost of testing (Mylab's test kits cost Rs 1200) it should be possible to aggressively scale this up. Currently,India ranks lowest in terms of testing done -15 people in 1 million. Let's TestTestTest Once we can measure,we can isolate/monitor.We can focus, and deploy our limited resources to where it matters the most.
MEASURE.MANAGE.REPEAT
Comments