'No community transmission yet,' says Manish Sisodia amid conflicting statements by Delhi Health Minister

Manish Sisodia, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, on Tuesday said that there are no instances of community transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the national capital, even though Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain had provided conflicting remarks on the matter.

"On community spread in Delhi, central government officials said it has not happened yet," said Manish Sisodia on this day after a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority at the residence of Anil Baijal, the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory.

According to the currently available data, Delhi has witnessed nearly 30,000 positive cases of COVID-19 infection, of which 874 have succumbed to the disease. It is likely that there will be around 1.25 lakh cases by July 15, the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister said, proceeding to hit out at the Liutenant-Governor for his decision overturning the state government's earlier move to reserve beds in state-run hospitals only for Delhi residents.

Sisodia pointed out that it is likely that there will be a shortage of beds soon for COVID-19 patients in the national capital. "This is why the Delhi government had decided that the state-run hospitals would reserve beds for COVID-19 patients in Delhi. But the Lieutenant Governor overturned the decision," he said.

Earlier, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain had hinted that community transmission was already occurring in the national capital as more than half the cases of infection could not be traced. "We call it community transmission when we cannot trace the source of the infection. In more than 50% of the cases in Delhi, the source of infection is not known."

The minister said that declaring the 'community transmission' phase can only be done by the central government authorities. "The Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Randeep Guleria, had himself said that there is community transmission in Delhi but the central government is not ready to accept it. Since it is a technical term, it depends on the Centre whether they accept it or not," said Satyendra Jain.