COVID-19 in India: Are Biological and Environmental Factors Helping to Stem the Incidence and Severity?

The ongoing Corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic has witnessed global political responses of unimaginable proportions Many nations have implemented lockdowns that involve mandating citizens not to leave their residences for non-essential work The Indian government has taken appropriate and commendable steps to curtail the community spread of COVID-19 While this may be extremely beneficial, this perspective discusses the other reasons why COVID-19 may have a lesser impact on India We analyze the current pattern of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, testing, and mortality in India with an emphasis on the importance of mortality as a marker of the clinical relevance of COVID-19 disease We also analyze the environmental and biological factors which may lessen the impact of COVID-19 in India The importance of cross-immunity, innate immune responses, ACE polymorphism, and viral genetic mutations are discussed