No community spread yet, clarifies Centre

New Delhi: The health ministry on Tuesday reiterated that there are “clusters of cases and pockets of localised transmission” of Covid-19, amid reports of officials in some states saying that community transmission has taken place.

“WHO does not define community transmission. It gives its member-states room to define the stage of transmission,” Rajesh Bhushan, officer on special duty (OSD) in the health ministry, said. He said community transmission is usually “defined as a stage when it is impossible to trace the chain of transmission, impossible to tell who gave the infection to whom”.

He pointed to results of Delhi’s sero-survey to make his point and said, “When just 20% of the population is affected, one cannot say there is community transmission.” He said there is a technical argument involved and what matters is how effectively containment strategies are implemented.

“However, there are some clusters of Covid-19 cases and pockets of localised transmission. But we still stand by what we earlier said about community transmission,” he added. The statement comes days after Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said community transmission is happening in two places in Thiruvananthapuram and a senior West Bengal official also said the same with regard to a locality.