Coronavirus: can India learn lessons from the NIEs?

Prime Minister Modi’s address this evening seemed intended mainly to raise awareness of the threat posed by the coronavirus in India. With case numbers still low, the government has taken few measures to contain the domestic spread. But the difficulty of carrying out effective contact tracing, and the impracticality of working from home and of social distancing mean that if a large outbreak did occur, the public health and economic impact would be large and long-lasting.