COVID-19 has not “exploded” in India, but the risk of it happening remains as the country moves towards exiting the lockdown that was imposed in March to contain the disease, according to a top WHO expert.
WHO Health Emergencies Programme executive director Michael Ryan said on June 5 the doubling time of cases in India was about three weeks at this stage. So the direction of travel of the epidemic was not exponential but it was still growing, he said.
Interactive map of confirmed coronavirus cases in India | State-wise tracker for coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates
The impact of the pandemic was different in different parts of India, and varied between urban and rural settings.
“In South Asia, not just in India but in Bangladesh and … in Pakistan, other countries in South Asia, with large dense populations, the disease has not exploded. But there is always the risk of that happening,” Mr. Ryan said in Geneva.
He stressed that as the disease generated and created a foothold in communities, it could accelerate at any time as had been seen in a number of settings.
Mr. Ryan noted that measures taken in India, like the nationwide lockdown, had helped had an impact in slowing to slow transmission, but the risk of an increase in cases loomed as the country opened up. “The measures taken in India certainly had an impact in dampening transmission and as India, as in other large countries, opens up and as people begin to move again, there’s always a risk of the disease bouncing back up.”
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