Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain also indicated that the assessment of the local administration points towards “third stage of spread”. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain Tuesday said the source of Covid-19 infection was unknown in 50 per cent cases in the national capital, adding that it was up to the Centre to declare whether the city had entered the phase of community transmission.
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The health minister also indicated that the assessment of the local administration points towards “third stage of spread”. “Director AIIMS Randeep Guleria has said (there has been community transmission) but Centre has not yet confirmed it. We will raise the issue in the meeting of the DDMA. What is community spread? It is a situation where source of infection is not known. There are many cases where sources are not known. But we can say that officially only if the Centre admits. In epidemiology, community spread happens to be the third stage. There isn’t one such case where source is unknown. There are many cases, in fact in case of around half the cases source of infection is unknown,” Jain said.
Minutes before a crucial meeting of the state Disaster Management Authority began, Jain said a host of factors including the fact that “the Centre did not agree to our request to stop landing of flights in Delhi initially” contributed to the steep rise in cases in the city. “People from other states were also kept here,” he added.
The meeting of the DDMA is being chaired by L-G Anil Baijal, who is the chairperson of the body. Besides Jain, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev and other top officials of the administration are attending the meeting. Sisodia had on Monday said that the DDMA will assess whether community spread has started in Delhi or not.