Coronavirus: No Community Transmission In India So Far, Don't Panic: Health Ministry

The Union Health Ministry on Friday said the infection rate from deadly coronavirus in India is not huge and there is no community transmission in the country so far. “No community transmission in the country yet, no need to panic; but remain aware and alert,” Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Health, said. He also said that as many as 146 government labs are testing samples for coronavirus and 67 private labs have been given the approval to conduct the test.

He said that the current challenge is not local or community transmission but if we are taking all the precautionary and containment measures.

“Yesterday, we conducted 16002 tests. Only 0.2 per cent cases tested positive. On the basis of the samples collected, the infection rate is not high; Rapid diagnostics kits have also been sanctioned,” he said.

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The official said that any kind of misbehaviour against the health workers will have a negative impact on the entire process. “Health workers are on the frontline in the battle against COVID-19 and any type of misbehaviour with them is harmful to us. Incidents of misbehaviour with them negatively affects their morale,” the Health Ministry said.

According to the ministry, there is a sufficient dose of hydroxychloroquine tablets in the country. We have a domestic requirement of 1 crore hydroxychloroquine tablets while we have 3.28 crore hydroxychloroquine tablets available now, Agrawal said.

Meanwhile, India saw an increase of 547 new COVID-19 cases in the last 12 hours, according to the latest updates by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday morning. This surge took the total number of coronavirus positive cases to 6,412 in India. The death count due to COVID-19 in India rose to 199 with 30 new deaths being reported since Thursday evening. Twenty-five deaths were reported from Maharashtra, three from Delhi and one each from Gujarat and Jharkhand.