India has the world’s worst ongoing Covid outbreak. Vedika Sud reports from New Delhi

Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, on April 27. CNN

India has reported more than 300,000 daily Covid-19 cases for six days in a row and yet, Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, says the country is “definitely undercounting” cases and deaths.

“It’s very likely that the cases are underestimated because even if we test everybody who is to be tested, we know that the testing actually gives only 60% to 70% positivity rates. And surely, not everybody who needs to be tested is being tested at this point despite very large testing numbers overall. Unless we test much more, we’ll still not be able to find how close we are to the [actual] number,” he told CNN.

There is reason to believe that the deaths are also underreported, according to Reddy.

Since the surge has resulted in a lot of deaths outside hospitals, “it’s difficult to certify them and therefore, the deaths, too, are being undercounted this year substantially, and that’s a great cause of concern,” he added.

Some background: India is home to the world’s worst ongoing coronavirus outbreak. It has reported more than 17.6 million cases since the pandemic began last year. But the real number, experts fear, could be up to 30 times higher — meaning more than half a billion cases. World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan also told CNN she “expects” that there has been undercounting of Covid-19-related cases and deaths.

India needs a “coordinated” lockdown strategy with every state assessing whether it needs a partial or complete lockdown, Reddy said Tuesday, adding that many local governments were “a bit late” on imposing restrictions to stem the spread of the virus.

“But nevertheless, there is urgency now in several states to try and contain the pandemic, both by way of lockdowns or near lockdowns and considerable restrictions on travel as well. It is important that we get both the policy action as well as the public precautions in terms of masking into full play across the country.”

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