Testing times for India in race to head off coronavirus epidemic

A policeman wearing a protective mask walks inside a shelter set up for migrants during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, India, April 6, 2020. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India, like a lot of countries plunged into crisis by the pandemic, is struggling to ramp up testing for the coronavirus, but in few places would the odds of containing the disease appear so bleak should domestic transmission start to multiply.

Officials hope to be testing 20,000 people daily by the end of the week, four times the current rate.