India's COVID-19 crisis: a call for international action.
Kuppalli, K., Gala, P., Cherabuddi, K., Kalantri, S. P., Mohanan, M., Mukherjee, B., Pinto, L., Prakash, M., Pramesh, C. S., Rathi, S., Pai, N. P., Yamey, G., & Pai, M. (2021). India's COVID-19 crisis: a call for international action. The Lancet, 397(10290), 2132-2135.
Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01121-1/
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India's current COVID-19 surge is an unprecedented public health crisis. With exponential growth in the number of daily COVID-19 cases since March, 2021, India reported more than 400 000 new cases daily on May 1, 2021.1 This number is likely to be an underestimate of the true burden of COVID-19 cases, given reports of backlogs of test results, poor access to testing, and many people not getting tested due to fear and stigma.2, 3 Without mitigation, estimates suggest India could reach more than 1 million COVID-19 cases per day with over 1 million cumulative COVID-19 deaths by Aug 1, 2021.4
The Indian Government and health authorities must act fast to flatten this second wave. We strongly endorse the national action plan laid out by The Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force and we have summarised some of their recommendations in the panel.5 Early in the pandemic, India provided COVID-19 vaccines and medications to other countries. Now it is time for the global community to support India as it endures its own public health crisis.6 As a group of clinicians, public health professionals, and scientists working in India or with research and clinical collaborators in India, we call for eight steps the international community must take to help address the crisis in India.
