No community spread in country, says ICMR chief

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 11

The government on Thursday asserted that the country is definitely not in the community transmission stage of Covid-19 spread, even as cases and deaths continued to mount with the country recording the highest single-day spike of 9,996 new infections.

India’s first sero survey to monitor the trend of Covid-19 infection transmission has found that the lockdown and containment measures were successful in preventing a rapid spread of the disease, but a large proportion of the population still remains susceptible.

‘Testing capacity underutilised’

The ICMR said the daily testing capacity of two lakh samples was underutilised. It urged states to test more. Experts said India’s consistently low mortality rate of 2.8 per cent and improving recoveries were positive signs.

Sero survey

A sero survey is a blood sample assessment to detect if the person has developed antibodies to the virus.

The ICMR took blood samples of 26,400 persons in 28,595 households across 83 districts to see if they had developed antibodies to the virus. An indigenously developed kit, ‘Elisa’, was used and results showed that 0.73 per cent people had past exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virus and the fatality rate was 0.08 per cent.

The sero survey, however, covers the period until April 30 and mirrors early gains of the lockdown imposed on March 24 midnight. Fresh surveys would be needed to see how vastly the disease spread after April 30 to reach today’s level of 2.86 lakh cases.

“In the 83 districts surveyed, 0.73 per cent population showed evidence of past exposure to SARS-COV-2. This means the lockdown was successful in keeping the disease low. The survey also shows that a large proportion of the population is still susceptible and urban slums are highly vulnerable so local lockdown measures must continue. The states cannot lower the guard on effective surveillance and containment,” ICMR chief Balram Bhargava said. The expert said there was no community transmission in India. “We want to emphasise that India is not in a community transmission stage” Bhargava said.

Delhi is becoming corona capital: HC

New Delhi: The Capital is fast heading towards becoming the “corona capital” of the country, observed the Delhi High Court while expressing concern over the spike in Covid-19 cases and directed that all private hospitals equipped with labs to test for coronavirus and having ICMR sanction be permitted to conduct the test. PTI