In a press conference, the Director-General of Indian Council of Medical Research has informed that India is currently at stage 2 of the coronavirus outbreak. This means that at present the pandemic in India is contained in the local transmission. We have not reached stage 3 as yet.
What does being in stage 3 of the coronavirus outbreak mean?
ICMR director-general Balram Bhargava said. “We already know that we are in Stage 2. We are not in Stage 3, clearly as of now. The third stage is community transmission, which we hope we shouldn’t have. It would depend on how strongly we close our international borders, in which the government has taken very proactive steps. But we can’t say that community transmission won’t happen.”
What are the four stages of an outbreak?
* Stage 1: This is when cases are imported from affected countries. Only those who have travelled abroad test positive.
*Stage 2: When there is a local transmission from infected persons who traveled abroad to relatives or acquaintances. In this less people are affected and the source of the virus is known and easier to trace the chain.
*Stage 3: Community transmission is when a patient not exposed to any infected person or one who has not traveled to any of the affected countries tests positive. At this stage, people detected positive are unable to identify where they got the virus from. Italy and Spain are in Stage 3.
*Stage 4: This is the worst stage when the disease takes the shape of an epidemic with no clear endpoint. That is what happened in China.
The novel coronavirus continues to spread around the world, countries are closing their borders, imposing travel restrictions and struggling to keep their economies afloat. The pandemic has infected more than 197,000 people and killed more than 7,900.
The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 147 on Wednesday, according to the Union health ministry. This includes 130 active cases, 3 deaths and 14 patients who have been cured of Covid-19. Total number of positive cases reaches 18 in Pune and 42 in Maharashtra.
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