New Delhi, June 8:
Delhi has decided to consider if the coronavirus has reached the dreaded community transmission stage, as the country officially starts the first phase of lifting the lockdown. A key meeting to figure out the issue will be held tomorrow, which will be attended by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the absence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Mr Kejriwal is unwell. He is running a temperature and is expected to take a coronavirus test tomorrow.
“The Chief Minister is not well. We are very serious about his health,” Mr Sisodia told reporters at a virtual press conference this evening.
“I have been authorised to attend the meeting tomorrow between the SDMA and experts. If it shows that there has been community spread in Delhi, we will change the entire strategy,” Mr Sisodia added.
The SDMA or State Disaster Management Authority is the key body involved in decision-making during any crisis. It is headed by the Lieutenant-Governor, whose deputy is the Chief Minster.
Delhi is about to touch the 30,000 mark in the number of coronavirus cases. This morning the national capital logged 28,936 cases, less than one-third of Maharashtra’s 85,000-plus cases.
The country’s biggest hotspot, Maharashtra currently has the more coronavirus patients than China, the nation where the global pandemic originated barely six months ago. But even in Maharashtra, the disease is not considered to be in the community transmission stage.
Tracing the chain of transmission — officially called contact tracing — is considered one of the best methods of keeping the spread of the infection under control. But in the community spread stage, it becomes impossible to trace the chain of transmission, making it impossible to trace and isolate the patients.
