'Van-guard' of India's virus fight

The New Delhi government has deployed a mobile Covid-19 testing van as the Indian capital and the rest of the country are in a lockdown to check the spread of the coronavirus.

India has recorded more than 20,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and over 600 deaths.

Yesterday, its health officials suspended testing people for antibodies - which can detect who had been infected and recovered - owing to concerns over the test's accuracy. India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has been slow in conducting the standard swab tests for the virus, and had approved the antibody test earlier this month because it is a faster way of screening.

The antibody test can assess how far the virus has penetrated the population, allowing a country to see whether it has reached a point of herd immunity, where a majority have gained resistance to the virus to be able to slow or stop the transmission.

The strategy, while controversial given the high risk of deaths, is being touted as the solution for poor countries like India. It could result in less economic devastation and human suffering than restrictive lockdowns designed to stop the pandemic, according to a number of experts.