As India attempts to tackle COVID-19, on Wednesday, 1 April, the number of cases in the country rose above 1,600 with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reporting 376 cases in one day. The number may not seem so high for a country as densely populated as ours, and the ministry is maintaining that we are at the local transmission stage, or stage 2, of the disease.
However, ICMR or Indian Council of Medical Research has said that India is currently testing up to only 38 percent of its capacity. Currently, the testing norms remain highly restrictive.
The question that is being asked repeatedly by public health experts is why aren't we ramping up our testing? How do we know these are the only positive cases when we simply don't test enough? Why is the government data on the testing samples or the sample kits all lacking transparency? Tune in to The Big Story!
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