BH CORRESPONDENT, New Delhi: Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday said that there was no community spread of coronavirus in the country and a defined protocol exists about who needs to go for a test.
Answering during the question hour in Lok Sabha, the minister said the scientists in the country were doing their own research about coronavirus and were also in touch with their counterparts in other countries. “There is a very defined protocol about who needs to be tested,” the minister said.
He said those with symptoms and travel history need to go for tests and the ministry was also doing a detailed contact tracing. He said the infection was traveling from one person to another and “has not gone to the community”.
The minister said the Indian Council of Medical Research was doing tests to see if there was community spread. “Whatever test we are doing is with perfect scientific advice,” he said.
The number of positive coronavirus cases in the country crossed the 200-mark on Friday. After Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Punjab, on Friday, a 69-year-old Italian, who was among the first batch of coronavirus positive patients in India, died of cardiac arrest in Jaipur.