Localised outbreaks, says Centre as Covid-19 cases surge

India is witnessing “localised outbreaks” of Covid-19 and the highly infectious disease has not entered the “community transmission” phase, the Health Ministry said on Thursday as the total cases were galloping towards the eight-lakh mark.

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“There may be some localised pockets, where transmission is high, but there is no community transmission in India,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said after chairing the 19th meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) on Covid-19.

At a media briefing on the Covid-19 situation, Rajesh Bhushan, Officer on Special Duty in the Health Ministry, said that 49 out of the total 733 districts were reporting 80% of the Covid-19 cases which was a clear indication that the outbreak had not entered the community transmission phase.

Bhushan said the government was also planning to launch a fresh sero-survey across several states to assess the prevalence of the disease that had infected 7,88,585 persons as of 8:30 p.m. on Thursday and claimed 21,518 lives.

He said the gap between the active and recovered cases was widening progressively every day which was an indicator that India had managed the pandemic “relatively well”.

However, Bhushan cautioned against letting the guard down and insisted on following social distancing norms amid reports that the Sars-Cov-2 virus was airborne. He also held out a warning for people between the age of 45-75 who were most affected by the disease.

He said the people in the age group of 45-75+ constituted 25% of the country’s total population, but accounted for 85% of Covid-19 related deaths.

As of Thursday morning, India had a total of 7,67,296 cases of which 4,76,377 or 62.09% have recovered while 2,69,789 were under active medical supervision.

A DH Covid-19 Tracker put the total Covid-19 cases at 7,88,585 at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Eight states and union territories – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat – contribute to around 90% of the active caseload, while six – Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal – account for 86% of deaths, the health ministry said.