Scientists Say India May See 13 Lakh Covid-19 Cases

New Delhi: India could face between 100,000 to 13 lakh confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus by mid-May if the current trend in the growing number of COVID-19 cases continues, according to a report by an international team of scientists.

The report, compiled by COV-IND-19 Study Group, an interdisciplinary team of researchers, said while India seems to have done well in controlling the number of confirmed cases compared to other countries like the US and Italy in the early phase of the pandemic, the country is critically missing a key component in this assessment — the number of truly affected cases.

This factor depends on the extent of testing, the accuracy of the test results, and the frequency and scale of testing of people who may have been exposed but do not show symptoms, the researchers, including Debashree Ray from Johns Hopkins University in the US, said.