No community transmission of coronavirus in Delhi, says Amit Shah : Report

With the national capital reporting 2,948 novel coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours and over 80,000 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country there have been fears that it could have reached the community transmission stage.

Speaking to News agency ANI, the home minister said he has spoken to Dr Paul from government think tank Niti Aayog, Dr Bhargava -chief of the Indian Council for Medical Research Government and the nodal agency for coronavirus crisis and Dr Guleria Director of AIIMS and they have confirmed that Delhi has not reached the stage.

Shah said Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia had said by July 31 there will be 5.5 lakh persons infected with the virus which will lead to grave shortage of hospital beds and the city will be in great difficulty to deal with the spike in cases. This, the home minister pointed out, created a lot of panic among the people.

"His (Sisodia's) comments were based on some estimates. I do not want to go into whether the estimates were right or wrong but it definitely frightened people and several of them began mulling exodus," he told ANI in an interview.

"After speaking to all the experts, I assure that situation of 5.5 lakh cases will not come on July 31 in Delhi,” Shah said 

So far, Delhi has recorded 80,188 confirmed coronavirus cases with 2,558 deaths and 28,329 active cases. Last week there were more than 3,000 cases for three consecutive 24 hour periods and since June 17 the national capital has seen over 2000 new cases every day.

Shah's statement comes weeks after  Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain had said that Delhi was facing community transmission of coronavirus but stated that it could be confirmed only by the Centre.

Jain had also contracted coronavirus infection and had to be admitted to a hospital in Delhi where he recovered from the highly contagious viral disease.

He had said that at least 50% of cases in Delhi could not be traced to their source.

The spike in coronavirus cases in the city had left Delhi government struggling to arrange adequate medical facilities.

The Delhi government was also reprimanded by the Supreme Court which termed its handling of the crisis "horrific, horrendous and pathetic".