Community transmission of COVID-19 has started, situation is bad: Indian Medical Association

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) stated on Sunday that the community spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus has started, adding that the situation is 'pretty bad'.

"This is now an exponential growth. Every day the number of cases is increasing by more than around 30,000. This is really a bad situation for the country. There are so many factors connected with it but overall this is now spreading to rural areas. This is a bad sign. It now shows a community spread," Dr. V K Monga, the Chairman of IMA Hospital Board of India said.

He said that the pandemic is now spreading to towns and villages where it will be very difficult to control the pandemic.

"Cases are penetrating down into towns and villages where it will be very difficult to control the situation. In Delhi, we were able to contain it, but what about interior parts of the country in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Madhya Pradesh (which may be the new hotspots)?""All these issues are very important and the state governments should take full care and seek help of the Central government to control the situation," Monga added.

He further said that the virus can be contained in two ways--1. 70% of the population contracts the virus, and immunity is achieved 2. Immunisation through vaccination.

"There has to be phases of trials then human trial, then efficacy and side effects. Also, importantly it has to be seen how long this immunity will last because most of the patients are unable to go beyond three months of immunity,"  Monga said.

As many as 1,34,33,742 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till July 17. Of these 3,61,024 samples were tested on Friday, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.ICMR is ramping up testing facilities regularly.

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At present, 885 government laboratories and 368 private laboratory chains are conducting COVID-19 tests across the country.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday informed that India witnessed the highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with 34,884 cases reported in the last 24 hours.

With these fresh cases, India's coronavirus cases tally has gone up to 10,38,716, out of which there are 3,58,692 active cases in the country and 6,53,751 cases have been cured/discharged or migrated.

As many as 26,273 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported across the country so far.

As per the Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst-affected state from the deadly virus -- has a total of 2,92,589 coronavirus cases and 11,452 fatalities.

While Tamil Nadu has a tally of 1,60,907 cases and 2,315 deaths due to COVID-19, Delhi has reported a total of 1,20,107 cases and 3,571 deaths due to the virus.