We have heard a lot of news about China, Italy and the USA in the past few days listing the affects that it has had on these countries. And many of the news are about how lack of preparedness and action has put them under a threat of mass contamination and overflowing of hospitals. And it has happened. The main reasons why these countries became epicentres of the outbreak are either cover-ups, lack of knowledge about the virus, lack of preparedness and a lack of action. The countries were locked-down way too late in the latter two countries and the consequences are visible.
Now, what about the country with the second biggest population in the world? India had a limited number of patients in the initial phase when the virus was just starting to spread everywhere else, only 3 people in fact. How had it managed to stay that low? The major reason was India had started screening people even before the first case was confirmed here and every suspected person was quarantined immediately.
As more and more cases were confirmed around the world and more Indians were brought back from the new epicentres, the number went up, mostly due to the people who were brought back, since they were infected. Community infection has been pretty low compared to other countries. The main reason is because after about a few hundred infected people, the government of India announced to keep a trial lockdown on 22nd March, Sunday for 14 hours. This gave people a feeling of what it would be like in actual nationwide quarantine.
After the Sunday experiment was a success, people were allowed to move around. But a little jump was seen on Monday of newly infected people. The annual exams for class 10th and 12th had been called off by the central board and the remaining classes were promoted. The final step came on 24th March, Tuesday at night, when the government announced a nationwide lockdown from the 25th for 21 days, i.e, till the 14th of April.
Another major reason coming into play here is the implementation of these lockdowns. Even during lockdown, people in the USA can still be seen wandering on beaches, people in the UK can be seen in concerts. In India, the police have come down hard on people loitering outside from the start. They have hit them with sticks called 'lathis' which is definitely a bad thing, but it has given people severe leg pain and that is one way to get people to stay home.
The number of infections in India have been relatively low in number. I say 'relatively' since the number has reached around 1,300 (as of 31st March), but seeing as it is the second largest country in the world in terms of population, it can be said that the measures taken here were highly effective since they were taken in the early stages as opposed to the current epicentres of the outbreak.