4. FAILING THE CRUCIAL TEST

WHEN THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION declared Covid a global pandemic in early March last year, India had 14 RT-PCR testing labs. By end-March, the country had added 106 Virus Research & Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDLs). Far behind countries such as South Korea and the US initially in terms of the number of tests, India beefed up its testing capacity quickly. By April 2020, we had 166 labs for testing and by July 1,600. The number of daily tests shot up from 1,500 in April to 200,000 in June, and 1 million in October. By the time the first wave