Finally, Centre admits to community spread of COVID-19

New Delhi: As India struggles to contain COVID-19, the Union Ministry of Health has confirmed that the community transmission of the viral disease had begun in April when the nation was under a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

While the government is still hesitant to use the term 'community spread', the ministry, in its guidelines issued to the mental health centres, has said there was limited community transmission of COVID-19 in the country in April.

Community transmission of an infection signifies that there is no clear source of its origin. At such a stage it is difficult to identify.

the infected after exposure to a positive case who came in contact with people from originally infected communities.

While many central officials have been privately admitting that the community spread in India started a while ago, this is for the first time that the government has officially stated it.

The Health Ministry had so far refused to admit community spread even though many experts, including All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Guleria, had said the Stage 3 of the disease had already started in April.

Even the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had rejected his claim. Its director general Dr Balram Bhargava had said that there is not enough evidence to suggest community spread in such a vast country as India.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India started increasing rapidly in April. The country had only 309 cases between January 1 and March 31. The figure grew by six times in April, while, in May, the count was 4.8 times that of April.

Now, over 20,000 cases are being added daily. On Wednesday, India had 22,752 new cases. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that the country has had 7,42,417 positive cases till Wednesday, of which 2,64,944 were still active.

It said 20,642 people have so far died of the disease in the country.