Editorial: Acknowledgement is the first step to acceptance

Chennai

But the spectre of community transmission, or Stage 3, which has been looming large over the Indian subcontinent, has been denied by the powers that be. Both the Centre and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have denied that India could be in Stage 3. Last week, Balram Bhargava, the Director-General of ICMR, stated that India was not in the community transmission stage of COVID-19 while releasing the findings of India’s first sero-survey. The study was conducted to monitor the trend of coronavirus infection transmission. It found that 0.73 per cent of the 26,400 people surveyed from about 65 districts were exposed to COVID-19. However, experts in virology, public health, and medicine went on to lambast the report, saying that the government is being myopic in not admitting that community transmission has occurred.

Let’s first understand the difference between local transmission and community transmission. Typically Stage 2 or local transmission occurs when those infected have a travel history and have spread the virus to family or friends. This stage allows for tracing and isolating every person who contacted the infected. On the other hand, community transmission occurs when the source of infection cannot be pinpointed – not having travelled to a hotspot; or not having contacted an infected individual. As per reports, even Chennai has several cases where the source of infection could not be identified. And this is despite the ongoing lockdowns and travel restrictions in place. Marketplaces and congested neighbourhoods have turned into COVID-19 hotspots, despite the residents not having a travel history to either coronavirus hotspots or even contacted travellers to such regions.

Having reached such a precarious juncture in the pandemic, it is imperative that the Centre and states acknowledge the seriousness of what we are faced with – and abandon any dependence on placative half measures. This very first item on their agenda should be a frank admission on whether community transmission might have already started in India – and what needs to be done on part of the citizenry and the administration. The latest ICMR projection said November 2020 would see the COVID-19 peak in India. If makeshift reassurances are all we get from the decision-makers, we might have to pull back the projection to a much earlier date.