Coronavirus: Karnataka tells Centre there is no community spread of the contagion
Karnataka minister JC Madhuswamy had on Monday expressed fears about community transmission in the state, saying the ‘situation is going out of hand’.
The Karnataka government on Tuesday told a central team that there is no community transmission of the coronavirus in the state, PTI reported.
Karnataka minister JC Madhuswamy had on Monday expressed fears about community transmission in the state, saying the “situation is going out of hand”, ANI reported. Community transmission is the stage when the source of the infection cannot be traced and a large number of people are affected.
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa held discussions with the team, comprising Additional Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Arti Ahuja and Emergency Medical Relief Director P Raveendran, to discuss the Covid-19 situation in Karnataka. Other senior ministers and officials of the state government were also present at the meeting.
“There is no community spread so far, I am making it very clear,” Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu told reporters following the meeting. “We are still in between the second [local transmission] and the third stage [community spread], we haven’t reached the third stage yet.” Sriramulu said the state had told the central team about this and they had accepted it, while asking the state to ensure that it does not reach the third stage.
At the national level too, Home Minister Amit Shah has denied any community transmission in the Delhi and elsewhere.
Sriramulu said the central team suggested that Karnataka do more testing in containment zones. He added that the team will visit containment zones and Covid-19 care centres in the state before meeting Yediyurappa once again.
Karnataka’s health minister said Yediyurappa had agreed to the demands of 600 contract doctors that they be made permanent. He also appealed to Accredited Social Health Activist workers not to go on strike. ASHA workers in the state have threatened a strike, demanding a minimum wage of Rs 12,000 per month, among other things.
Madhuswamy, the Tumakuru district-in-charge minister, had said on Monday that the medical condition of eight patients admitted in hospital is critical. “There is no guarantee of their lives as per the information,” he told ANI. “We somewhere feel we are worried that coronavirus is spreading at the community level. We have reached a point where it is difficult for the district authorities to restrain it, even though we are trying to restrain it. Somewhere the situation is going out of hand.”
The minister said so far nine people in the district have died due to the infection.
According to the health ministry figures on Tuesday, Karnataka has recorded 25,317 coronavirus cases and 401 deaths. India’s coronavirus tally rose to 7,19,665 on Tuesday morning.