“Things have remained in control... Testing is the most crucial tool and we are conscious this is not enough, but we are ramping up significantly in the coming days,” Mishra said. Asked if the country will reach a peak by May 3, the last day of the lockdown, Balram Bhargava, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said, “It is difficult to say... But we are in a very stable formation... We may have managed to flatten the curve.”
According to a rough comparison with other countries, done by ICMR and the health ministry, the UK, US and Italy saw a huge spike after they crossed the 400 cases mark, while India managed to stay on a linear curve. These countries, Mishra said also had higher incidence of positive cases when they completed 500,000 tests, compared with India.