Medics arrive to take blood samples of residents of Spanish Garden residential complex after a COVID-19 positive case was detected in an apartment, in Guwahati. Guwahati, Assam, India

The Indian government continues to deny the existence of community transmission of the coronavirus in India despite mounting evidence.

BBC reported yesterday (26 Jul) that the Indian government is saying there is no clear definition of the term, “community transmission”, and each country can define it based on local conditions.

According to the guideline of World Health Organization (WHO), it said, “community transmission is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases”.

This is certainly happening in India, according to Dr Arvind Kumar, chairman of the Centre for Chest Surgery at Delhi’s Sir Gangaram Hospital. More and more patients are turning up at hospitals whose source of infection cannot be traced, he said.

India now has more than 1.4 million cases and more than 32,000 deaths.

“These stats don’t lie,” Dr Kumar said. “You have state after state where infection rates are going up rapidly. There is no point in denying what is right in front of you.”

“We had localized community transmission in early stages of the pandemic. But now it’s spread across the country, it’s there for everybody to see,” he added.

Many of the states were not prepared because they largely relied on quarantining and testing people coming from other states to stop the spread. But they did not take enough steps to curb the spread locally in their own state.

Critics pointed out that the borders between states are porous and that many states lack the means to track and test every person entering their territory. They also think that the Indian government officials continue to deny the existence of community transmission because these officials didn’t want to be seen as failures.

Leading epidemiologist Dr Lalit Kant commented that it’s pointless to argue about it now. “We really don’t need a definition to understand the ground reality,” he said. “It’s getting worse, and that is the harsh truth.”

Meanwhile, in the past week (18 – 25 Jul), out of 37 of imported COVID-19 cases in Singapore, 29 are people returning from India (‘Majority of SG’s imported COVID-19 cases from India; Indian govt says no community transmission‘).

They include Singaporeans, Permanent Residents, Work Pass holders and Dependant Pass holders.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

Does the Office of the President come with a code of conduct?

Despite having virtually zero political power, the office of the President is…

Amendments to the CPF Act – did you know?

Leong Sze Hian – I refer to media reports (“Second chance to…

尚达曼呼声七年后 金管局还得再提醒需打造国人雇员核心

在前日(8月12日)的一项演说,金融管理局市场与金融发展副局长罗惠燕呼吁金融机构,应遵循人力部的公平考量框架(Fair Consideration Framework),积极栽培有潜质的新加坡籍员工担任领导职务。 根据《海峡时报》报导,罗惠燕称我国仍会欢迎全球各地专才和保持开放。惟,雇主也应以负责任的态度,积极培养本地人才。 然而,事实上,早在2013年,时任副总理和金管局主席尚达曼,就曾强调国人在金融企业内的行政财政和贸易领域争取最佳职务,至关重要。 与此同时,金管局、人力部和积极与新加坡的银行业界商讨,打造“新加坡核心”,更重要的是,这个核心不只是人数尚待象征。 “这还必须包括积极的职涯发展,确保国人在银行中有增长的领域有代表。确保在银行不同职能区域,国人都有大量的机遇。” 更早与2013年,民间实则已发出对金融领域外籍人士的人数表达担忧。自2005年新印经济合作协定(CECA)就有这种趋势。 遗憾的是,尚达曼的呼声过了七年,金管局仍不得不再次对银行业界作出喊话,确保业者打造“新加坡核心团队”。至于人力部在本月初揭发,多达30个金融、专业服务行业的雇主,聘请的外籍PMET大部分来自同一国家,事件仍令人印象深刻。 只不过数家银行在金管局的呼吁后,马上站出来表示,他们有强大的本地人核心雇员团队,也有培育本地人才的渠道。