© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
India Coronavirus Cases: Though there still seems to be a great reluctance to admit the fact that the novel Coronavirus epidemic in India was well into the stage of community transmission, more and more states seem to be realising that it was becoming increasingly untenable to outrightly deny the possibility.
In the last one week, at least three states have hinted that community transmission was going on. Kerala was the most forthright, with the chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself saying that community transmission could be happening, though only in a few coastal areas. A few days ago, Telangana, which has seen rapid rise in its number of cases in recent weeks, also hinted at the same, though it too was guarded in its statement.
Top ten states with maximum caseload
| STATE | TOTAL POSITIVE | NEW CASES | TOTAL RECOVERIES | DEATHS
|
| Maharashtra | 366,368 | 9,251 | 207,194 | 13,389 |
| Tamil Nadu | 206,737 | 6,988 | 151055 | 3,409 |
| Delhi | 129,531 | 1,142 | 113068 | 3,806 |
| Karnataka | 90,942 | 5,072 | 33,750 | 1,804 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 88,671 | 7,813 | 43,255 | 985 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 63,742 | 2,971 | 39,903 | 1,387 |
| West Bengal | 56,377 | 2,404 | 35,654 | 1,332 |
| Gujarat | 54,712 | 1,081 | 39,612 | 2,305 |
| Telangana | 52,466 | 1,640 | 39,327 | 455 |
| Bihar | 36,314 | 2,803 | 24,520 | 232 |
And now, the Maharashtra health secretary also seems to be dropping hints. In an interview with this newspaper, the official did not deny community transmission, but said it was not in the domain of the state government to decide on this, that this was within the “purview” of the Indian Council of Medical Research, and that everyone was just following the ICMR guidelines.
To independent scientists and health experts, this reluctance to admit to community transmission has been baffling, as has been reported earlier by this newspaper and also other media organisations. For these scientists, community transmission is a reality that had arrived in India much earlier. And they have expressed concerns about inherent dishonesty and lack of transparency in matters related to science, when there are refusals like this to admit fairly straightforward facts.
Not that it matters. An admission of community transmission would change nothing, as pointed out by the Maharashtra official as well. It would make no difference to the ongoing work of health administrators, local governments, doctors and other medical staff, or to the general public. It is a largely academic question, with a rather obvious answer at a stage when the country is adding almost 50,000 cases every day.
For the third straight day on Saturday, more than 48,000 new cases were detected from across the country. The Saturday count was 48,661. It could be much higher, possibly even more than 50,000, because Telangana did not disclose its numbers. These days Telangana has been reporting between 1,200 and 1,500 cases every day.
📣 Express Explained is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@ieexplained) and stay updated with the latest
Andhra Pradesh reported more than 7,800 new infections, slightly lower than the 8,000-peak that it had crossed a day earlier. With a total of 88,671 cases now, it is closing in on Karnataka’s total caseload, which is barely two thousand higher. Karnataka had another day of 5,000-plus cases.
Meanwhile, West Bengal overtook Gujarat to become the state with the seventh-highest caseload, while Bihar made a re-entry into the top ten list, surpassing the tally of Rajasthan. Bihar registered its highest single-day rise in the figures, with the detection of over 2,800 new cases on Saturday.
In fact, apart from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, two of the fastest-growing states in the country right now, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Odisha are the other states to watch out for. West Bengal already has over 56,000 cases, while the others have been 25,000 and 35,000, and all of them are growing at a fast pace.
Apart from Delhi, none of the other major states are showing any signs of a slowdown right now. Delhi has continued with its remarkable turnaround, and its seven-day compounded daily growth rate has fallen below one per cent now, the lowest for any state in the country. In the last one week, the city has added less than 8,000 cases.
