In a recent announcement, the health ministry and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) released a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) regarding the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and stated that “This SOP is applicable to the current phase of COVID-19 pandemic in India (local transmission and limited community transmission)”
Until recently, ICMR stated that the country is currently facing local transmission and in a press meet, held on Saturday, officials once again refuted the possibility for the moment, stating that there was no reason to panic. Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at ICMR, Raman R Gangakhedkar, said that not enough evidence was available to call this as social transmission, further announcing that the officials at ICMR are now testing all the patients with severe acute respiratory infections (SARI).
Asking the media to not interpret things, he quoted, "We have just started testing SARI cases. There are some sporadic instances where cases have not revealed any history of exposure. But the numbers are not so exponential that we conclude that the virus is spreading rapidly. It is all dependent on a person's memory and also whether they want to reveal their history or not. Some people didn't even reveal that they tested positive while others hid their travel history. Till we see a significant number of cases to indicate community transmission, let us not overinterpret things."
A few days back, Balram Bhargava, D-G, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) mentioned that the community transmission of COVID-19 will be inevitable and it may show similar pattern of spread as it showed in China, clarifying that "it will behave the same way it has behaved in China. It will follow the same pattern.”
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