British medical journal The Lancet has assessed how India handled the Covid-19 situation and given a mixed review. In its editorial titled “Covid-19 in India: the dangers of false optimism”, it said India is clearly facing a “dangerous period”, though the country has responded well in many regards, “especially for such a large and diverse nation.

“India has also been at the forefront of efforts to develop and manufacture a vaccine, both through domestic vaccine candidates and manufacturers such as the Serum Institute of India preparing production capacity for internationally developed vaccine candidates,” the journal noted.

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“The rapidly growing case numbers, alongside the continuing relaxation of restrictions, are creating an atmosphere of fatalism mingled with false optimism that undermines effective use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as masks and physical distancing,” it added.

4 things Lancet credits India for

* Early lockdown, which was praised by the World Health Organization (WHO)

* Rolling out pooled testing, where multiple swab samples are tested using one RT-PCR test kit. If the pool tests negative, the entire group can be called negative. If the pool tests positive, at least one of the samples is positive.

*Research for vaccine

* Increasing tertiary care provision, including access to specialist equipment such as ventilators.

4 things Lancet discredits India for

* Atmosphere of fatalism mingled with false optimism that is undermining importance of social distancing, the use of masks etc.

* ICMR supporting Covid-19 treatment with hydroxychloroquine despite insufficient evidence .

*Parallel crisis of economic slowdown, including the migrant crisis.

* Presenting the current situation in India with a too positive spin.