Looking beyond numbers

Deciphering Covid-19 data and why Kerala stands out

The disease caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 will have only mild illness for the majority of the population, as many medical experts opine. This me­ans, mild Covid-19 cases can recover fully without serious medical interventions. Data on the numbers tested on Covid-19 is of utmost importance to understand the nature of the pandemic.

However, the reports are not easily available for many states or at the all-India level particularly on the issue of testing. Even though the data has im­proved in many dimensions, they are found lacking on many others. Some are not easily accessible. The state-level variations in