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Indian Medical Association (IMA) has claimed that community transmission of COVID-19 has begun in India and the country is in a really bad situation right now. The IMA has also urged the centre to acknowledge community transmission of COVID-19 in India.

Speaking to ANI, Dr VK Monga, Chairman, IMA Board of Hospitals, said, This is now an exponential growth. Every day the number of cases is increasing by more than around 30,000. This is really a bad situation for the country. There are so many factors connected with it but overall this is now spreading to rural areas. This is a bad sign. It now shows a community spread.

We have indeed moved into community transmission phase. The government may not acknowledge it but look around how the people are getting infected. There are elderly who have not stepped out of home since months yet they have contracted the infection. There are women who have only gone out to buy vegetables in a week and carried home the COVID-19 infection, Dr Monga added.

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Dr Monga further said, Cases are penetrating down into towns and villages where it will be very difficult to control the situation. In Delhi, we were able to contain it, but what about interior parts of the country in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Madhya Pradesh (which may be the new hotspots)??

Speaking about COVID-19 vaccine, Dr Monga said, A usable vaccine to cure COVID-19 and bringing the same to good use would go beyond 2020. Developing a vaccine for viral infections is a longer process as firstly, these infections have shorter immunity and secondly, viruses mutate faster, so this makes developers clueless as to which mutation is there in which part of the country.