India still in the Local transmission phase of Coronavirus, clarifies the Health Ministry

New Delhi: – The mention of the ‘Limited Community Transmission’ in the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), issued by the Union Health Ministry created a sensation. But the Health Ministry later on clarified that this type of transmission is yet to begin in India and India is still in the local transmission phase of Coronavirus. Luv Agrawal, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, appealed to the citizens of the country to cooperate with the government to control the pandemic.

The number of Coronavirus cases is consistently increasing in India. On Monday, the number of cases reached 1,154, and the number of deaths reached 30. The Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra have reached 220. The number of cases in Kerala has reached 205. There is an increase in the number of cases in other states too. Meerut, in Uttar Pradesh, reported 8 cases today. This takes the number of cases to 19 in Meerut. These include 13 members of the same family. Before this, a similar case of 24 people from a family getting infected had been reported from Sangli, Maharashtra.

Against the background of the increasing number of Coronavirus cases in the country, the Union Health Ministry issued a new SOP directive. Sensation was created because of the mentioning of Limited Community Transmission in the SOP. There was a discussion claiming that the country has entered the third phase of Coronavirus pandemic. The Health Ministry immediately issued a clarification. Luv Agrawal, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, said that Limited Community Transmission has not started in India. India is still in the second phase of local transmission. Agrawal said that whenever there is mention of community in the government documents, it is always misinterpreted.

The effects of the lockdown in the country are becoming visible, and it took 12 days for the virus cases to reach from 100 to 1,000. Agrawal pointed out that three to eight thousand cases have been reported from the developed countries in the corresponding time period. Agrawal underlined, ‘Cooperation is required from every person. Even if one person does not cooperate, the entire effort will be nullified. The SOP issued by the government has to be followed 100%, and even if it slips to 99%, everything will go down the drain.’