India Not In Community Transmission Stage: ICMR

There is no community transmission of COVID-19 in the country according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday.

Professor (Dr) Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR, at a press conference in New Delhi said that the prevalence of the infection is at less than one per cent in the small districts, while it is just over one per cent in the urban areas.

“India is such a large country and prevalence is very low that we have found that prevalence is less than one per cent in the small districts, in the urban areas it might be a little over one per cent and slightly higher in containment areas. India is not in community transmission,” Bhargava said.

He, however, added that the country needs to continue with the strategy of testing, tracing, tracking, and quarantine and continue containment measures as they have been successful so far. “The guard should not be let down now,” he added.

There are more patients who have recovered from COVID-19 in the country than active cases currently, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.

Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, MoHFW also said that the recovery rate in the country currently stands at 49.21 percent during a press conference.

“Today, our recovery rate is 49.21 per cent. The number of patients recovered presently exceeds the number of active patients,” Agarwal said.

As of Thursday, there are 1,37,448 active cases while 1,41,028 patients have been cured and discharged in the country. Meanwhile, 8,102 deaths have also been reported due to the infection so far.

(ANI)