ABSTRACT
This article illustrates what a comprehensive lockdown could achieve in the absence of a comprehensive testing capacity following the substantial spread of COVID-19. We particularly focus on the context of a developing economy typically constrained by adequate public health capacity. Based on India, this article argues how the main objective of the comprehensive lockdown that was implemented nationwide from March 25 to May 31, 2020, eventually turned into a self-defeating act in suppressing the COVID-19 spread and case fatality. The major takeaway of this article, especially for developing countries, is that to suppress the spread of COVID-19-positive cases and thus restrict case fatality, one has to have a lockdown and comprehensive testing in tandem. It also discusses how ensuring a stringent lockdown got more government focus instead of revamping health infrastructure, which has been among the key reasons for high fatalities during the second wave of the pandemic in February-May, 2021. In the end, this article raises a question on the severity of the COVID-19 fatality figures, especially in reference to other causes of death which are systemic and perennial in a developing country context.
