Coronavirus: India witnessing 'community transmission', admits Health Minister

New Delhi, Oct 18: In a first, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday admitted that India is witnessing community transmission, adding that "it is limited to some districts and states."

During an interaction with his social media followers on the sixth episode of "Sunday Samvaad", Vardhan said "In different pockets across various states, including West Bengal, community transmission is expected to occur, especially in dense areas. However, this is not happening across the country. It is limited to certain districts occurring in limited states.

Harsh Vardhan also said there is no evidence that can validate claims on global multiple focal points for the COVID-19 outbreak, amid China claiming that the coronavirus broke out simultaneously in several countries last year.

Vardhan said the reported outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan in China remains recognised as the first report worldwide.

Responding to a question, he said China has claimed that there was a simultaneous outbreak of the disease across many nations.

"However, to validate this claim that there were multiple focal points across the world requires data of uniform and timely reporting of the occurrence of confirmed and diagnosed cases from various countries at the very same time. No such clinching evidence is as yet available regarding this. Therefore, the reported outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan in China has been recognised as the first report worldwide," the minister said.