Covid-19: Govt says report on stage 3 misleading, denied by official

In an interview the convenor of the task force for Covid-19 hospitals said that the next ten days are crucial to halt the spread of the pandemic

The government on Saturday denied a report which said that the coronavirus panemic is rapidly expanding its footprint in India and may have entered stage three, or community transmission. The denial comes after a report in Quint cited the convenor of the task force for Covid-19 hospitals, Dr Girdhar Gyani as saying, “Yes, we are calling it Stage 3. Officially we may not call it – but it is the beginning of Stage 3."
 

Dr Girdhar, on Saturday, clarified to the ANI, "Luckily, till today, increase in number of cases is purely arithmetic, while in community spread it goes geometrically or exponentially."
 

"While the numbers of Covid-19 cases are increasing, there appears to be relatively a stable trend or even little bit reduction in the rate at which they are increasing," Health Ministry official Lav Aggarwal said in a briefing.

Dr Gyani said that the upcoming ten days would be crucial to halt the pandemic spread and even the asymptomatic till now, might start showing symptoms once the situation gets out of control.

He pointed out that the government should act fast to break the chain of transmission and should test even those who are not showing all the symptoms. "I have told the same thing in a meeting with Prime Minister Modi that we are running out of time and should act quickly," he added.

Once the community transmission starts, an outbreak will spread fast in clusters and the original source will be difficult to trace. India has reported 724 cases so far and is in the middle of a nationwide 21-day lockdown. Maharashtra has witnessed highest infections at 156. 17 people have succumbed to Covid-19 in the country so far.

Meanwhile, central and state governments unleashed measures on a war-footing to offset Covid-19 fallout on the poor and vulnerable. While the Union finance ministry unveiled a Rs 1.70 trillion economic package involving free food grain and cooking gas to poor for the next three months, many state governments have announced free ration and cash transfer schemes