The Central government on Thursday reiterated that India is not yet in the stage of community transmission of Coronavirus.

The assertion comes as India has been recording nearly 10,000 cases per day in the past two weeks and cities like Delhi and Mumbai saw a surge in COVID-19 cases, brewing speculation.

Ending all the speculations, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in a joint briefing with the Health Ministry said India is “definitely not” in the community transmission stage.

“There is a heightened debate around the term and then the WHO has not defined it. The prevalence is so low in our country, below 1 per cent. In urban areas it is little higher and a little higher in containment zones. We are definitely not in community transmission,” said Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

He said as per serosurvey conducted in 15 districts, only about 0.73 per cent of the population showed a prevalence of past exposure to infection and added that lockdown and containment measures has been successful in keeping the Coronavirus infection low and preventing rapid spread.

The ICMR chief further stated that infection fatality in these districts has been as low as 0.08 per cent.

Further, in comparison with other affected countries, the ICMR stated that India’s mortality and cases per lakh population is amongst the lowest in the world at 0.59 per cent and 20.77 per cent respectively.

The top health body, however, cautioned the States against complacency in containing the virus.

It said States cannot lower their guard and need to keep on implementing effective surveillance and containment strategies to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

“India is not in community transmission; we have to continue with our strategy of testing, tracing, tracking, quarantine and containment measures; we should not give up our guard on these,” said said Balram Bhargava.

The ICMR chief added that non-pharmacological interventions such as physical distancing, use of face mask/cover, hand hygiene, cough etiquette etc. must be followed strictly.

Meanwhile, health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal informed that India’s recovery rate now stands at 49.21 per cent and the number of patients recovered presently exceeds the number of active patients.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said that in almost half of the cases in the capital, the source of the infection cannot be ascertained.

“We can say that there is community spread only when the Centre admits it,” he further said and added: “AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria had said there is community transmission in Delhi but the centre has not accepted it yet. We cannot declare it and the centre has to declare it. Community spread is a technical term and it depends on the centre whether they accept it or not.”

However, Central officials, at a meeting of the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) on Tuesday told the Delhi government there is no community transmission of Coronavirus as the city as of now.

Meanwhile, Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has said that 5.5 lakh cases are expected in Delhi by July 31 based on the current doubling rate.

The Coronavirus cases in India rose to 2,86,579 on Thursday out of which 1,37,448 cases are active and 1,41,028 number of patients have recovered according to ministry of health. The death toll due to the infection rose to 8,102.

In the biggest single-day day jump, India recorded 9,996 Coronavirus cases and 357 fatalities in 24 hours.

After United States, Brazil, Russia, and United Kingdom, India is the fifth worst-affected country in the world due to the pandemic according to Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Maharashtra remained the worst hit state in the country with total inching close to 95,000 mark with 94,041 total cases including 3,438 deaths and 44,517 recoveries.

Delhi has reported 32,810 cases of coronavirus till Thursday with death toll at 984.