False Remedies

The Modi government’s woeful record of suppressing information on COVID-19

- NAYANTARA NARAYANAN

The Press Trust of India ran a story on 13 March 2020, quoting unnamed officials at the health ministry saying that the spread of the coronavirus was not a health emergency. On that day, India had recorded nearly ninety confirmed cases of infection and had already reported death by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. On 30 January—the day India recorded its first case—the World Health Organisation had declared the COVID-19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Just a day before the PTI story, the WHO declared it a pandemic. Ten days later, on 22 March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a one-day nationwide curfew that was quickly followed by a long-term nationwide lockdown.