It is all testing stupid

I have been following the number for more than 1 month now. I have watched the numbers take off in several countries as CoronaVirus peaks havoc across the globe. There are countries like South Korea and Japan that have been able to fight the disease quite well and then Germany which has managed to keep death rate really low.

The number explain what is going on.

Check the number of tests out

The last two columns are the interesting piece of statistic in the image above. It may be illegible in which case you can visit this link.

Germany has been able to contain the spread of the virus and death rate through aggressive testing. 900,000 people tested. 10X the number of cases. Also, I believe that they have been able to test early and that has resulted in a lot of lives saved.

Similarly, South Korea undertook over 400,000 test with only 10,000 cases emerging. 40X the number of cases.

Testing in India

India Stats

What left me rather surprised is the fact that India seems to have conducted over 100,000 tests. 30X the number of cases detected so far. Per Capita, we probably need to undertake 100 times that number to match the per capita counts that some of the European countries have managed.

Having said that, starting early and making the test available as widely to as many people as possible is the key. I hope that we have the capacity to pull off as many tests.

Locking down the movement of people early on in the epidemic cycle was a good move. Providing the medical fraternity the freedom to consult online through telemedicine is a good move. There is a need to still make testing easily and widely available. This is a chink in our armour. I hope we get on top of it.