The World Health Organisation (WHO) has admitted an error in its “situation report” on the coronavirus spread in countries that showed India at the stage of community transmission. The organization has told that the error has been fixed. India has a cluster of cases and not community transmission, WHO has said.
While the India column in the report had said “community transmission”, China, the first country where COVID-19 erupted late last year, showed a “cluster of cases”.
India has 6,412 cases of coronavirus, including 199 deaths. Thirty-three deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.
The government has firmly denied that the country is in Stage 3 or community transmission, which is when the infections escalate and it is difficult to trace the source.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to order a 21-day lockdown has helped slow the spread of coronavirus, believe officials and experts. Even this morning, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in a meeting with diplomats that “so far, there is no community transmission” in India. He said of nearly 600 districts, 400 were unaffected by COVID-19 and 133 districts are hotspots.
Friday marks 100 days since WHO was notified of the first cases of “pneumonia with unknown cause” in China.
According to WHO, the transmission scenarios – no confirmed cases, sporadic cases, clusters of cases, and community transmission – “are self-reported” by member states.
