India ramps up coronavirus tests

India yesterday said it ramped up coronavirus testing as documented cases there rose above 6,700 and topped 12,000 across South Asia.

The epidemic has killed 206 in India, data shows, with its capital Delhi and financial hub Mumbai emerging as hotspots, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under pressure to extend a 21-day nationwide lockdown beyond Tuesday, when it is due to end.

In neighbouring Pakistan, where the official tally climbed to 4,601 cases and 66 deaths, a crowd of worshippers attacked police enforcing lockdown rules outside a Karachi mosque when the officials tried to stop them from offering a congregational prayer, said city police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon.

Authorities earlier warned of tough penalties if people went to mosques for Friday prayers. The lockdown rules allow only five people to pray at a time.

Pakistan announced a cash transfer scheme worth $900 million for 12 million families to receive 12,000 rupees a month for the next three months, in the largest such scheme in its history.

India's lockdown of 1.3 billion people has left millions out of work and forced an exodus of migrant workers from the cities to their homes in the hinterland.

The concern is especially grave in Mumbai, where more than 1,100 people have tested positive for the virus, including a growing number from the slums, where a total lockdown is impossible to enforce.

The government yesterday said it had increased daily tests for COVID-19 on Thursday to more than 16,000 people - from a previous daily average of 5,000-6,000 - but only 320 people were found to be carrying the disease.w

"We are not finding many positives," senior health ministry official Lav Agarwal told reporters.

An internal assessment by a government body, the Indian Council of Medical Research, forecast the number of virus cases would have hit 820,000 by mid-April without the 21-day lockdown.

Meanwhile, The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday admitted an error in its "situation report" on the coronavirus spread in countries that showed India at the stage of community transmission. The organization has told NDTV that the error has been fixed. India has a cluster of cases and not community transmission, WHO has said.