India Not In Community Transmission Spread: Here's What Stage India Is In

India has a total count of 2.75 lakh COVID-19 cases with 133,632 active cases. Nearly about 48 per cent or 1.35 lakh people have recovered from the disease. Cities like Mumbai and Delhi are witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases at a time when India has announced the Unlock 1 with specific guidelines. Within two days of the announcement, the national capital has recorded 29,943 cases with 17,712 active cases. Delhi has recorded the most number of active coronavirus cases followed by Maharashtra. 

What are the different stages of coronavirus transmission and how are they classified?

There are four stages of coronavirus pandemic, which includes Sporadic Case, Local Transmission, Community Transmission and the last when the disease becomes an epidemic.

Stage 1, Sporadic Case: In this stage, the disease can only be seen in the people who have a travel history. It indicates that the cases are imported into the country and the infection didn’t originate. 

Stage 2, Local Transmission: This stage talks about the local virus transmission when the source is known and located. At this stage, people testing positive have come in contact with a patient who has travelled outside the country

Stage 3, Community Transmission: This is the stage of community transmission and takes place when the source of an individual’s infection can’t be traced and isolated.

Stage 4, Epidemic Stage: It is the most dreaded stage during which there are several clusters of the infection and it takes the form of an epidemic. Massive numbers are infected making it very difficult to control and contain the spread of the disease.

What is community transmission?

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), community transmission “is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases, or by increasing positive tests through sentinel samples (routine systematic testing of respiratory samples from established laboratories)”.

In other words, community transmission or spread is said to take place when the source of the virus is unknown. This means when it is difficult to trace back an infection to the carrier.

If a state of community spread implies, it means that the virus is circulating within the communities. Thus it will lead to infect people, with no history. No history denotes that, the infected person had no travel history and has not been in contact with the person who is either symptomatic or prone to disease. 

Has community transmission stage arrived in India?

A meeting was held with the officers of the central government and they confirmed that there is no community spread in Delhi. The ministry urged not to discuss and spread anything which might create panic in the society. They confirmed that the country is witnessing local transmission, cluster of cases and large outbreaks in some places.