As Number Of COVID-19 Cases Cross 11,000, Kerala Acknowledges Community Transmission Of Virus

On Friday, Kerala became the first state to acknowledge that parts of the state have reached stage three - also known as community transmission when patients who have no travel or contact history tests positive and the source of the infection is unknown.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday confirmed that community transmission of Covid-19 has occurred in two coastal hamlets of capital Thiruvananthapuram.

AP

¡°The situation in Thiruvananthapuram is really serious. In two areas, Poonthura and Pulluvila, community transmission has happened¡± said the CM.

He said in Poonthura when 50 people were tested randomly, 26 tested positive, while in Pulluvila, 28 out of the 57 tested were found to be positive.

The development came on the same day when Kerala recorded the highest rise in single-day infections.

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On Friday, Kerala saw 791 new cases, taking the total infections so far from January 30 to 11,066.

In Kerala, which was the first state to record COVID-19 cases in India, until recently the majority of the infections were those who had returned from abroad or other states.

Only last week, the number of local transmissions began overtaking those who had come from outside.

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Local transmission had reached a point where the state government had to announce a triple lockdown in parts of Thiruvananthapuram and had even deployed armed commandos to enforce it.

Community transmission of COVID-19 is a contentious topic in India and states which have a much larger number of COVID-19 cases have refused to acknowledge it.

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In Delhi, where the COVID-19 tally stands at 1,20,107 cases so far, state Health Minister Satyendra Jain had last month said that source of 50 percent cases was untraceable and there was "transmission in the community" but only the Centre can declare if it is Community transmission.

Early this month, the Health Minister of Maharashtra, where the COVID-19 cases stand at 2,92,589 had ruled out community transmission in the state. Rajesh Tope had said the government has been able to trace most of the virus infected people and their source.

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For months, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has reiterated that there was no community transmission in the country, something that many experts have rejected.

Several top virologists and epidemiologists in India have said that several states in the country are well into the Community transmission phase.

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Last month leading experts like AIIMS former director Dr. MC Mishra, virologist Shahid Jameel, lung surgeon Dr. Arvind Kumar and epidemiologist Dr. Jayaprakash Muliyil had come out rejecting the ICMR's claim and said that the virus is now spreading among population groups and localities that have little to do with travel or contact with travellers.