India's lockdown exit: are we prepared to lock horns with COVID-19 and dengue in the rainy season?

摘要

Novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection causing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported in India in late January 2020 among students who returned from Wuhan, China. The disease transmission escalated in March, reaching 100 cases by mid-March and crossing 1000 cases by the end of the month. The government enforced world largest nationwide lockdown on March 24, 2020 for 21 days, further extending it twice for 2 weeks each. This tough and timely measure, as quoted by WHO, has given the country strained health system time to prepare for the forecasted surge in number of infections.1 At the time of publication, 719,665 infections were confirmed with a steady increase in daily reported cases.2 The lockdown has quite possibly delayed the peak of the pandemic in India, postponing it to the end of summer (July鈭扴eptember), the months that mark the onset of monsoon in several states.