Experts say India still in second transmission stage-THE HINDU-17-03-2020

Details:

You have to remember that India started proactive action from January 17 onwards, whereas our first cases came in the end of January. The country had put in early measures to ensure that transmission stays localised and any indications otherwise are picked up,”’ said Dr. Gangakhedkar, head of the Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases-I , Division, Indian Council of Medical Research, on Monday.

‘Very few samples’:

As of now, the transmission is localised and our labs are receiving very few samples, and can test far more than the the number of samples that we are getting,” he said. This is when several experts have noted that India isn’t testing enough, which could be the reason for its relatively low number of COVID-19 cases, while also exposing the country to an outbreak. Currently, 63 laboratories are functioning to test COVID-19, and nine laboratories are expected to start functioning shortly.

Random sample testing:

“We have picked up 20 samples from over 50 labs for testing any community transmission. We had previously taken a smaller group of samples from our labs to check for community transmission between February 15 and 29.