India March for Science, a collective of scientists, wrote to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, suggesting they be included in the process for COVID-19 detection, and has proposed various measures to counter the crisis. They have also said that most biology institutions in India have the required machinery to detect COVID-19, if their labs are provided with the extracted RNA from the collected samples.

The letter is signed by over 700 scientists, scholars and university teachers. Citing examples of Singapore, South Korea, and Japan; the letter identifies the need to embark on testing on a very large scale to identify and isolate not only the symptomatic patients, but also infected asymptomatic individuals as social distancing by itself does not suffice. The letter also puts forth a few concrete proposals to deal with the crisis.