For India’s coronavirus strategy to succeed, barriers that prevent the poor from accessing healthcare will have to be removed With a 21-day lockdown kicking in across the country, the public health idea that drives this measure is quite simple: a lockdown prevents the virus from spreading from those who have already contracted it to those who have not.
Simultaneously, those who have already contracted it will begin to develop symptoms, get tested and get treated. Much of the focus has been on the first part - how will a lockdown be implemented and how do people survive it.
But the second part is just as important from a public health perspective, and just as likely to have significant structural flaws.