Sumit Saxena

New Delhi, June 6 (IANS): After witnessing an onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic for so many days, Delhi, where over a thousand coronavirus cases are popping up daily, has entered into Stage 3 or community transmission stage, said the former chief of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), N.K. Ganguly.

Ganguly, the former Director General of ICMR, told IANS, "Let us get out of this illusion that things are fine in Delhi. With so many cases reported daily continuously, it will not be wrong to say that Delhi has entered into community transmission or Stage 3. In fact, many cities (Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad), which have a high volume of Covid-19 cases, are in the community transmission stage, otherwise how would one justify hundreds of cases every day."

Referring to the relaxation of restrictions as a positive move, Ganguly said the authorities had to have relaxed the lockdown and opened up economic activities, as people have to earn a living and also fight this virus.

"For how long could you squeeze the economic activity? But, we have to take precautions to protect ourselves from the viral infection... Soon cases will come down," he added.

Delhi government is already facing the heat for not testing asymptomatic people in the city. Ganguly added that it is difficult to test everybody, and people showing severe symptoms should be prioritised.

According to the Health Ministry, Delhi has so far recorded a total of 26,334 cases and 708 deaths.

Queried on whether Delhi has moved into the community transmission stage or Stage 3 of Covid-19, Vinod Paul, Chairman of the Empowered Group 1, said, "Within three or four days we will come out with a serological study and it will establish the factual situation about Delhi."

Delhi's positivity rate last week was 25.7 per cent, but several districts in the national capital have reported figures above 38 per cent. Delhi has over 160 containment zones at present.