NEW DELHI After being in denial mode for several months since the covid outbreak, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan agreed on Sunday that India is in the midst of community transmission of the disease.
However, community broadcasting is limited to only certain districts and states, the health minister said while responding to a query during his weekly interaction with his audience on social media: ‘Sunday Samvaad’. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had recently mentioned cases of community transmission in her state.
“In different areas of various states, including West Bengal, community transmission is expected to occur, especially in dense areas. However, this is not happening across the country. It is limited to certain districts that occur in limited states,” he said Harsh Vardhan added that so far no mutation of the coronavirus has been detected in India, which is more efficient in transmission or more pathogenic.
An infection is considered to have reached community transmission, or stage 3, when authorities cannot find the source of infection in many cases, or tests during randomized surveillance show many positive results. Several states at different times have admitted the occurrence of community transmission of covid-19, while the central government always refused to admit the same. Early July. Pinarayi Vijayan Kerala’s Chief Minister had confirmed that community transmission was taking place in Poonthura and Pullivila along with other parties. Similarly, Assam indicated possibilities for community transmission between July and August.
However, the Union Ministry of Health in a standard operating procedure (SOP) note for emergency medical aid published in March said that the covid-19 pandemic was in the stage of local transmission and “limited community transmission” . However, the central government continued to deny community transmission in its press conferences on the COVID-19 situation.
As the country’s covid-19 count crossed the 75 lakh mark and the death toll soared to 1,14,308, Harsh Vardhan warned that India may pay the price of not adhering to appropriate covid-19 behavior with winters and festivals just around the corner. .
Citing the covid-19 situation in Kerala, which had reported only 499 cases and 2 deaths due to covid-19 between January 30 and May 3, the health minister said: “Kerala was paying the price of negligence serious during the recent Onam festivities when the unblocking of services at the state level, along with an increase in travel between states and intrastates for commerce and tourism, led to the spread of COVID-19 cases in several districts.
Kerala’s infection curve changed completely due to Onam holidays across the state, new cases every day almost doubled. This should serve as a good lesson for the entire state government that was being negligent in planning the festival season, he added.
Harsh Vardhan said the Union health ministry has already published ₹Rs 1,352 crore in Phase II of the COVID Package for 33 Union States and Territories. This Phase II grant has been released in tranches during the months of August, September and October 2020, it said.
At least 61,871 new confirmed cases were registered in the last 24 hours and 79% of the new cases are from 10 states and UT, the government said. Maharashtra continues to be the state reporting a very high number of new cases with more than 10,000 cases, followed by Kerala with more than 9,000 cases. Similarly, 1,033 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, which is higher than the previous days. Of these, ten states / UT account for almost 86%. More than 44% of the new deaths reported are from Maharashtra (463 deaths), the union health ministry said.
“The Ministry of Health has addressed the issue of the correct certification of deaths by covid-19 with all states and UT in multiple instances and has also shared an appropriate modality of notification of deaths with them to ensure consistency in the notification of Covid-19 related deaths across India, “said Harsh Vardhan.
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