The coronavirus infection numbers in India are sky-rocketing as the days go by, and the government is trying to hold the reins of the situation. It seems that even after adopting thoroughgoing measures to curb the coronavirus infection, the country’s future hangs in the balance. Currently, there are more than 1.16 million people battling the infection, and 28,084 have succumbed to death. The numbers are absolutely terrifying. But what’s more petrifying is a recent IMA claim that confirms that India has reached the stage of community transmission.
The Chairman of IMA Hospital Board, India, Dr. VK Monga, in his interview to ANI agency, said “This is now an exponential growth. Every day the number of cases is increasing more than 30,000. This is really a bad situation for the county. There are so many factors connected with it but overall this is now spreading to rural areas. This is a bad sign. It shows community spread.”
IMA Hospital Board Chairman isn’t the only one with an opinion about community transmission. Early in the morning on 18 July, Delhi Health Minister, Dr. Satyendar Jain, said, “There is a spread in the community, now it’s very technical to say either its local or community spread. Source of many Covid-19 positive patients remains unknown after the test. Let’s leave the technical battle on the Center to decide over community spread.”
Furthermore, the Chairman of the Centre for Chest Surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Dr. Arvind Kumar, on 19 July, said, “It was localised to pockets; for instance in Dharavi and several areas of Delhi, almost the whole community was involved. There were some cases where you could clearly pinpoint the contact and there were many where you could not pinpoint the contact and it was happening. These were pockets to community transmission but not to crisscross community. However, today the infection has spread across the country.”
However, even after doctors across the country have claimed that India has reached the community transmission stage, IMA called these claims utterly personal opinions. On 20 July, IMA dismissed the social media claims and said no statement regarding coronavirus community transmission has been issued by IMA headquarters. In an official statement to clarify its stand on community transmission, IMA stated, “It is for the official agencies to ascertain the stage in the natural history of the epidemic. Crowd-sourcing data cannot replace authentic data. IMA is confident that the public health authorities and the medical fraternity are fully engaged and prepared in containing the fallout.”
With so many eminent minds at work, it is expected to have a difference in opinions. But we hope, that the central government soon clarifies the status of community transmission in India. The country is certainly in dire straits, but hopefully we will come out of it stronger.