India is the fifth most affected country in the world by the deadly coronavirus (File)
New Delhi:
India is “certainly not” at the stage of community transmission of the coronavirus pandemic, the government said today amid speculation about the peaks recorded in recent days in Mumbai and Delhi.
“There is an intensified debate around the term and then the WHO has not defined it. The prevalence is so low in our country, less than 1%. In urban areas, it is a little higher and a little higher in containment areas. We are certainly not in community transmission, “said Balram Bhargava, director general of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).
Community transmission, or stage 3 of a pandemic, is marked by cases that cannot be attributed to any source of infection.
Speculation about community spread has resumed with an increase in COVID-19 cases in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Monday that a large number of cases in Delhi could not be traced to any source, but only the center could declare whether the city was in the community transmission stage of the pandemic .
“We say that the community has spread when people do not know how they got the infection. There are many cases. In 50% of the cases in Delhi, the source of the infection is not known” Jain told reporters.
“AIIMS director Randeep Guleria said there was community transmission in Delhi but the center has not yet accepted it. We cannot declare it and the center must declare it. Community propagation is a technical term and it depends on the center whether they accept it or not, “said the Delhi Minister.
There are nearly 30,000 cases of COVID-19 in Delhi and the city government estimates that there will be more than 50,000 cases in 10 days and 5.5 cases of lakh by July 31.
Mumbai has more than 45,000 cases of virus and the number of containment zones has increased to 798.
Over 60% of Mumbai live in slums and doctors working in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, insist that the community is spreading across the city.
“Those who live in slums work outside and they do not maintain social distance due to the lack of space. There is not enough awareness and they are asymptomatic patients and spreaders and it is why I think it’s community transmission. It came from the buildings. in the slums and now it goes from the slums to the buildings, “said Dilip Shetty, Dharavi Fever Clinic Practitioner.
The Union’s Department of Health, rejecting any possibility of spreading to the community, said there may be gaps in contact tracing in containment or sealed areas after a large number of cases of COVID-19.
“If the contact tracing is not done properly, authorities will have difficulty finding the source of the infection and cases will continue to increase in the containment area,” said a ministry official.
