COVID-19 community spread should be admitted by Centre: Satyendra Jain

New Delhi, Sep 19: As Delhi continues to report a spike in its daily coronavirus cases, the state Health Minister Satyendra Jain said on Saturday that he feels community spread of coronavirus is happening in the national capital and other parts in the country.

Jain said that the community spread of coronavirus in Delhi should have been admitted by now.

But only the Central government or the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) can comment on this, the minister added.

"When people in such large numbers are getting infected in Delhi and other parts of the country, it should've been admitted that there is community spread... but only ICMR or Central govt can comment on this."

Earlier, Jain said Covid-19 cases in the city will rise in the next 10 days as testing capacity has increased.

"Cases of Covid-19 and active cases will rise in the next 10-15 days as testing has been ramped up four times. But we will then be able to contain the spread of infection in the long-run through effective isolation, as planned," he said.

Delhi recorded 4,432 fresh cases of Covid-19 Thursday, taking the total tally to 2,34,701. The death toll mounted to 4,877, with 38 more deaths reported in the last 24 hours - the highest in over 60 days. Of the total cases, 1,98,103 have recovered. The number of active cases stands at 31,721.

On the results of the sero-prevalance survey conducted in the first week of September, Jain said the report will first be placed before the Delhi High Court.

According to sources, initial findings of the third survey suggests that around 33 per cent of the 17,000 people surveyed have developed antibodies against the virus. The samples were processed in 18 labs authorised by the state government.

According to district-wise data from Delhi's second (August) sero-survey (antibody tests) - the break-up of the third survey is not available in the public domain - 29.6 per cent of the population in the north-east district has been exposed to the virus, the same proportion as in the north-west.