COVID-19 Pandemic in India: Present Scenario and a Steep Climb Ahead

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, India has witnessed a massive surge of cases in the past 3 weeks. As of April 30, 33 610 confirmed cases and 1075 deaths have been reported from 32 states/union territories in India. Apart from the nationwide lockdown, India has increased its testing rate and has markedly strengthened the health care sector to combat COVID-19. With India’s population of more than 1.3 billion people at a significant population density compared with the rest of the world, the lack of universal access to clean water and overall poor socioeconomic status, all have posed a major challenge to India’s fight against COVID-19. Failure to contain the pandemic in India could have disastrous consequences with widespread cases and thousands of deaths that could easily overwhelm the health care infrastructure. Unabated spread of the pandemic could make India the next COVID-19 hotspot; hence the World Health Organization has recently stated that the “future of the pandemic will depend on how India handles it.” Here, we have summarized the present scenario of the pandemic in India and the myriad challenges being faced by the country in its fight against COVID-19.