Coronavirus 2020 pandemic in India

Coronavirus LIVE: India Covid-19 cases rise to 14,425; death toll at 488

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The first case of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in India was reported on 30 January 2020, originating from China. As of 18 April 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have confirmed a total of 14,378 cases, 1,992 recoveries (including 1 migration) and 480 deaths in the country. Experts suggest the number of infections could be much higher as India's testing rates are among the lowest in the world. The infection rate of COVID-19 in India is reported to be 1.7, significantly lower than in the worst affected countries.

The outbreak has been declared an epidemic in more than a dozen states and union territories, where provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 have been invoked, and educational institutions and many commercial establishments have been shut down. India has suspended all tourist visas, as a majority of the confirmed cases were linked to other countries.

On 22 March 2020, India observed a 14-hour voluntary public curfew at the instance of the prime minister Narendra Modi. The government followed it up with lockdowns in 75 districts where COVID cases had occurred as well as all major cities. Further, on 24 March, the prime minister ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, affecting the entire 1.3 billion population of India. On 14 April, the prime minister extended the ongoing nationwide lockdown till 3 May.

Michael Ryan, chief executive director of the World Health Organisation's health emergencies programme, said that India had "tremendous capacity" to deal with the coronavirus outbreak and, as the second most populous country, will have enormous impact on the world's ability to deal with it.^[16] Other commentators worried about the economic devastation caused by the lockdown, which has huge effects on informal workers, micro and small enterprises, farmers and the self-employed, who are left with no livelihood in the absence of transportation and access to markets.

Observers state that the lockdown has slowed the growth rate of the pandemic by 6 April to a rate of doubling every six days, from a rate of doubling every three days earlier.

The Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), in its report based on data from 73 countries, reports that the Indian Government has responded more stringently than other countries in tackling the pandemic. It noted the government's swift action, emergency policy making emergency investment in healthcare, fiscal measures, investment in vaccine research and active response to the situation, and scored India with a "100" for its strictness

Background

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.

The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.

Timeline

Main article: Timeline of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in India

On 30 January, India reported its first case of COVID-19 in Kerala, which rose to three cases by 3 February; all were students who had returned from Wuhan, China. No significant rise in cases was seen in the rest of February. On 4 March, 22 new cases came to light, including those of an Italian tourist group with 14 infected members.

The transmission escalated during March, after several cases were reported all over the country, most of which were linked to people with a travel history to affected countries. On 12 March, a 76-year-old man who had returned from Saudi Arabia became the first victim of the virus in the country.

Confirmed cases crossed 100 on 15 March, 1,000 on 28 March, 5,000 on 7 April and 10,000 on 14 April. The death toll crossed 50 on 1 April and 100 on 5 April.

A Sikh preacher that returned from travel to Italy and Germany, carrying the virus, turned into "super spreader" by attending a Sikh festival in Anandpur Sahib during 10–12 March. Twenty-seven COVID-19 cases were traced back to him. Over 40,000 people in 20 villages in Punjab were quarantined on 27 March to contain the spread.

On 31 March, a Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation event that took place in Delhi in early March emerged as a new virus hotspot after numerous cases across the country were traced back to the event.Over 9,000 missionaries may have attended the congregation, with the majority being from various states of India, and 960 attendees from 40 foreign countries. As of 6 April, 1,445 out of 4,067 confirmed cases were linked to this event in 17 Indian states and union territories.

On 6 April 2020, in Mumbai's Wockhardt Hospital, 26 nurses and 3 doctors were found to have been infected with the virus. The hospital was temporarily shut down and declared a containment zone. Negligence of the hospital administration has been blamed for the infections.