India scrambles to fight its hidden coronavirus epidemic: ‘The explosion is already here’

India has been praised for its response to Covid-19, but expert tells Adam Withnall country could still be heading for 300 million cases by July – and a refusal to test widely means the government is driving blind through the crisis

A live broadcast of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation (EPA)

In a rare address to the nation on Thursday night, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi appealed for the country’s older generations, the most vulnerable to severe infection, to call on their “wartime” experience of prolonged blackouts and national drills to beat coronavirus.

While the country’s tally of virus cases is just over 200, measures are being taken at the federal and state levels to place the country on a lockdown tighter than many worse-affected nations.

Schools and cinemas in major cities have already been closed for some time, and now restaurants in Delhi have been shuttered. In Mumbai, the capital of the worst-hit state Maharashtra, all but essential shops and offices have been ordered to close.