COVID-19 Update: India May Have Entered the Community Transmission Stage
Report By: Nandika Chand | Last Updated June 15, 2020
With over 3 lakh COVID-19 confirmed cases, India may be in the community transission stage. However, health authorities have shied away from admitting so. This is despite ICMR’s study of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) revealing that over 40 per cent of those who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 did not have history of overseas travel or contact to a known case.
The number of COVID-19 cases has also been steadily rising in Kashmir. Dr Abdul Majid Ganai, HOD Community Medicine GMC Baramulla, said the entire world has been impacted. In regards to Kashmir, he said it is something special because of the cold winter. “There are a lot of tourists, many working and studying outside the state and country. There has been mingling and mixing of people,” Dr Majid said.
“Guidelines have to be swiftly implemented at the grassroot level on a mission basis. We should not feel that it is enforcement of, we should feel that its for the benefit of each and everyone of us and for the entire population of Kashmir. This should be encouraged by the media, doctors and law enforcement agencies.”
Dr Majid explained the pandemic, COVID-19 is new for the world. “It belongs to the coronavirus family of common cold which are more prevalent, or widespread in cold places. In cold areas, people should take more precautions. We can expect the disease to be more prevalent. We should be on guard to follow the prescribed protocol.” However, he said there is no supporting study or research to prove the same.
The reason could be that the possibility that the virus reacts differently in different countries or environments. COVID-19 outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, China in November of 2019, and within a couple of months, it became a world pandemic. Health bodies and organizations such as the CDC and WHO have been struggling to help the countries, world over, cope with the virus. Over 7 million have been infected worldwide with 4,36,000 deaths. A vaccine is yet to be developed against COVID-19.
