#India @mohfw, @NITIAayog and analysts from @BrookingsIndia must not downplay the scale of the #Coronavirus epidemic in India. Even going by just the officially reported numbers - which we know are an UNDER-count:
1. At 3.3Million cases today, India is at World No 3.
"But India is a populous country and per million people our incidence is very low", I hear the apologists say. Firstly, these are reported figures, we really dont know what the true figure is. And even if others too are undercounting we dont know that India's undercount is worse.
Comparisons are always biased. Take a global view. 1 in every 6 persons on Planet Earth is an Indian. And if you take today's #Coronavirus figures. then again 1 in every 7 cases is an Indian. So India's reported incidence is almost spot on the global incidence.
India may be miles behind America, but if you consider recent cases - new infections reported in the last 14 days -the picture looks v different - India is the clear 'leader'. 1 in every 4 cases globally reported in last 14 days is from India! We're punching above our weight.
We need to wake up, and if we haven't already done so, we need to smell the #Coronavirus threat to India's. We must not hide behind the admittedly low deaths numbers and say #SabChangaS. Even @RBI has fallen for the "Rising #recovery rate" nonsense betraying a shocking ignorance.
The economy has been pole-axed in the solar plexus. The Govt's finances are precarious; it hasn't the wherewithal to pay the States their GST dues. far from not growing jobs are actually declining even after the massive job losses after #lockdown.
At the very least, India needs to officially acknowledge the scale of the problem. It does not help when Senior Ministers tweet about #Vishwaguru status or Ganesh Puja in Ghana, or when the PM shares a video montage of his peacocks and geese.
The Media have given up on the #Coronavirus problem. It's almost as if 75k cases in one day taking India to the tol of the leaderboard ios the new normal - Disucssing the life of and life choices of #RheaChakraborty is not going to deal with #Covid19
We need a clearly articulated strategy both to keep economic and social life going through a #Coronavirus dominated couple of years and to generate jobs and economic activity. We need to discuss now a strategy for a vaccine rollout. We need to end diversionary politics
Meanwhile, if anyone tells you how India has a low death rate tell them a) we are under-reporting deaths: See teets from @giridar100 and show them this chart
Comparisons with a few selected countries are misleading. Global averages tell a different story.
- 1 in every 6 persons in the world
- 1 in every 7 #coronavirus infected persons and
- 1 in every 4 persons infected in last 14 days
is an Indian
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