Survey on community transmission not reflective of current reality: Experts
| Date :14-Jun-2020 |
New Delhi :
Amid a massive spurt in coronavirus cases in India, experts on Saturday came down hard on the ICMR for its sero-survey findings to assert that there was no community transmission of COVID-19, saying it was not reflective of the current situation and the Government was showing “obstinacy” in accepting the truth. Emphasising that community transmission was on in many parts of the country, the experts asked the Government to admit it so that people don’t get complacent.
The assertion by experts from the field of virology, public health and medicine came after Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Balram Bhargava at a media briefing on Thursday said that India is definitely not in the community transmission stage of COVID-19 spread while releasing the findings of the survey. India’s first sero-survey to monitor the trend of coronavirus infection transmission found that 0.73 per cent of the 26,400 people surveyed from about 65 districts were exposed to coronavirus. AIIMS former director Dr M C Mishra said, “With the mass exodus and the country unlocking, it has become more rapid and the disease has reached areas where there were no cases.
It is high time the Government comes to fore and acknowledges it so that people become more alert and do not become complacent,” Mishra told PTI. CEO of Wellcome Trust/Department of Biotechnology’s India Alliance and best known for his extensive research in Hepatitis E virus and HIV, Shahid Jameel said India reached the community transmission stage a long time ago. “It’s just that the health authorities are not admitting it,” said Jameel. Noted lung surgeon at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, Dr Arvind Kumar said that even if the ICMR argument is accepted, it cannot be denied that community transmission is happening in places like Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
Chairman of one of the empowered groups set up to deal with the pandemic and NITI Aayog member Dr V K Paul had said the results of the survey indicate the situation of the country around April 30 as the study was conducted mostly around third week of May and antibodies against an infection take around 15 days to develop. Dr Ravi Shekhar Jha, Head of the Department, Pulmonology, Fortis Escorts Faridabad, said, the Government has stopped contact tracing. Earlier the Government was doing rigorous contact tracing, but in the last 7-10 days no Government is doing it.
It is not accepting that community transmission is happening,” Jha told PTI. Dr Vikas Bajpai, assistant professor, Centre for Social Medicine and Community health at the JNU, said if the Government has decided that “obstinacy and blindness to truth” is going to be a matter of policy for it in fighting against COVID then it is pointless to try and make them see reason. Dr Manoj Goel, Director and Head, Pulmonology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, said that community transmission is definitely happening in certain cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Bhargava had said the study surveyed a total of 83 districts with 26,400 people enrolling for it and 28,595 households were visited. The surveyed districts were categorised into -- zero cases, low incidence, medium incidence and high incidence--- and were selected based on incidence of reported COVID-19 cases as on April 25.
