India is not in community transmission stage of Covid-19 outbreak, says ICMR (Representative image)
Director-General of Indian Council of Medical Research on Thursday clarified that India was not in a stage of community transmission. Dr Balram Bharagva, DG ICMR, said that prevalence of coronavirus infections was low when large size of our country is taken into consideration. This, he said, suggested that the country was not in community transmission stage.
Dr Bhargava was addressing media along with representatives of Health Ministry and NITI Aayog.
Although he asserted that the country was not in community transmission stage, he warned against letting out guard down.
"We have to continue our strategy of testing,tracking, quarantine and containment," he said. He stressed ramping up testing capacity in the country.
Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry told media that number of recovered coronavirus patients exceeds that of active cases currently.
"Our recovery rate is at 49.21 per cent," said Agarwal.
When asked by the media on suspected patients being denied hospital beds and especially ICUs, Agarwal requested that suspected patients first call on state helplines and approach the hospital as suggested. He stressed that many a time a particular patient may not need an ICU as per his or her medical condition.
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