India not at community transmission level, says Health Ministry

New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) Coronavirus outbreak in India is, technically, still in local transmission stage, and there has been no community transmission so far, the Union Health Ministry announced on Monday.

Joint Secretary, Health Lav Agarwal said 99 cases out of the over 1,000 positive coronavirus cases have recovered so far.

The Health Ministry, urging people to follow dos and don’ts, said early identification of the viral infection is very crucial in fighting the disease. As many as 1,071 cases have been confirmed for the viral infection with 92 cases coming in the last 24 hours and four deaths.

The Health Ministry said 10 empowered groups have been constituted focusing on medical emergency, hospital management, community mobilisation etc., and emphasised on following social distancing to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

“Most of the positive cases for the coronavirus had a travel history,” Agarwal added.

“We should maintain social distancing. Even one person’s carelessness may play a big role in the spreading of the coronavirus,” he said.

Indian Council of Medical Research’s Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar said 38,442 coronavirus test has been done so far and it is still below 30 per cent of its testing capacity.He added that 47 private labs have conducted 1,334 in three days.