New Delhi: A group of health experts, including doctors from the AIIMS and two members of an ICMR research group on COVID-19, has said community transmission of the coronavirus infection has been well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country.
The government has maintained that the country has not yet reached the community transmission stage of the disease.
The report compiled by experts from the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and Indian Association of Epidemiologists (IAE) has been submitted to the prime minister.
“It is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country,” the report said.
“The expected benefit of this stringent nationwide lockdown was to spread out the disease over an extended period of time to flatten the curve and effectively plan and manage so that the healthcare delivery system is not overwhelmed. This seems to have been achieved albeit after 4th lockdown with extraordinary inconvenience and disruption of the economy and life of the general public,” the experts said in the report.