How is India dealing with the present lockdown?

India’s coronavirus lockdown and its looming crisis

At first glance, India seems like a coronavirus success story, with its relatively low number of cases compared with the rest of the world. But a closer look reveals a grim reality: It’s likely only months away from a major health crisis.

According to the government’s official numbers, as of March 24, the country has fewer than 500 total cases of Covid-19, and only nine people have died from the disease. For a country with a population of 1.3 billion people, the world’s second-largest behind China, those figures seem almost too good to be true.

Unfortunately, experts say the numbers almost certainly are too good to be true and maybe masking a much larger outbreak.

Perhaps recognizing this possibility, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a three-week lockdown for all of India. “To save India and every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes,” he said in a national address.