SAMPLE THE UNKOWN

Testing is no doubt the cornerstone of the fight against COVID-19. But the world’s growing obsession with tests might weaken our response to the pandemic.

- VIBHA VARSHNEY

THE WORLD is in a rush to reopen. After some five months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic and amid the forecast of a 3 per cent drop in the global economy—the steepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s— governments are easing stay-at-home orders, lifting restrictions and even drafting new laws to make up for the lost days. But with no antidote or vaccine in sight, they are in a fix; any careless move can undermine the hard-fought gains and lead to an explosion of new cases. In India, where the Union government has been relaxing restrictions while extending the lockdown, states are nervous as the infection count continues to rise. But as Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison says about easing lockdown: “It’s going to be step by step, there is going to be some trial and error, this is completely uncharted territory.”