India's COVID Tally Inches Towards 8 Lakh-Mark And We're Still Denying Community Transmission

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the worsening situation of COVID-19 in Kerala's Thiruvanthapuram's coastal area Poonthura is indicative of the fact that the state was inching closer to community spread.

The CM appealed to the people to follow social distancing norms and other guidelines as that is the best way to avoid spreading of cases through contacts.

"The need of the hour is to avoid all crowding. Things went out of control in a market here and that caused fresh lockdown. All should be cautious and venture out only if there is a major need," said Vijayan.

Of the 6,534 recorded cases in Kerala, 2,795 are presently active.

While Kerala is not in the top three worst-affected states in the country, it is the first to acknowledge community transmission of COVID.

The situation is much worse in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and New Delhi.

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Maharashtra is the worst-affected state in the country with more than 2.24 lakh cases and close to 9,500 deaths so far.

Despite the grave scenario, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope ruled out community transmission of Covid-19 in the state saying the government has been able to trace most of the virus infected people and their source.

"I think there is no community spread of coronavirus in Maharashtra. The state government has been able to trace almost every Covid-19 patient and his or her source of infection. Hence, in my opinion, there is no community spread in the state," he said, according to a report by news agency PTI.

"The data shows that most of the coronavirus positive patients are those who were earlier placed under institutional quarantine, home quarantine or had some contact history. Therefore, there has been no community spread in Maharashtra so far," he added.

No sign of community spread: government

Amid the spurt in coronavirus cases, the government on June 9 reiterated its stance on community spread in the country. It said India has not yet reached the community transmission stage of COVID-19 and asserted that there have been localised outbreaks in some geographical areas.

The death toll climbed to 21,129 with 487 new fatalities, the updated data at 8 am showed.

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Asked if India has entered the community transmission phase, Rajesh Bhushan, Officer on Special Duty in the Union Health ministry said, "Even today, the health minister Harsh Vardhan clearly said after the GoM that India has not reached the stage of community transmission. In some geographical areas, there have been localised outbreaks."

We should not forget that in our country, 49 districts alone account for 80 per cent of Covid-19 cases. In a country of more than 733 districts, if 49 districts account for 80 per cent cases, then it is not justified to talk about community transmission," he said at the press briefing.

He said India's Covid-19 cases and deaths per million population are amongst the lowest in the world.