The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India has been growing at a rate seen at the early stages in other countries where there was subsequently an exponential rise in infections in a matter of weeks. As a result, worries are beginning to mount whether India will also witness a significant outbreak in the days ahead. This is despite the sweeping measures put in place by governments at the Centre and in the states. In a televised speech on the evening of March 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people not to leave their homes unless necessary for the next few weeks. While India placed travel restrictions relatively early in the spread of Covid-19, and several states moved quickly to shutter public places, the country’s high population density (and the associated difficulty in practising social distancing), overburdened public health infrastructure, high prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the prospect of transmission from younger people to the elderly in jo...