Covid situation looks bad as community spread has started in India: Indian Medical Association

With India registering over 34,000 new cases and the total tally having crossed 10.38 lakh, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) today said community transmission of Covid-19 in India has started and the situation looks bad, the Times of India said quoting ANI.

Attributing this statement to Dr VK Monga, Chairperson of IMA Hospital Board of India, the report said “this is now an exponential growth”.

“Every day the number of cases is increasing by more than 30,000. This is really a bad situation for the country. There are so many factors connected with it but overall this is now spreading to rural areas. This is a bad sign. It now shows a community spread,” Dr Monga said.

This statement is significant because the Union Health Ministry has been maintaining that community transmission of Covid-19 has not started yet in India, claim strongly challenged by independent health experts.

The government maintains its claim despite the fact that India now has the third highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world after the US and Brazil.

In its morning Covid-19 bulleting on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said so far 10,38,716 people in India have tested positive for Covid-19. Of these, 6,53,751 have recovered, while 26,273 have died so far.

Speaking further about the current situation, Dr Monga said now the Covid-19 cases are “penetrating down” into towns and villages. He said this will make it “very difficult to control the situation”.

“In Delhi, we were able to contain it, but what about interior parts of the country in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Madhya Pradesh (which may be the new hotspots)?” Dr Monga, was quoted as saying.