New Delhi: With the detection of 93 positive COVID-19 cases in India, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Saturday termed it as 'impending public health emergency for the country.'
"At present this may not be a medical emergency in India as the number of COVID-19 cases are still in double digit for a country with a population of 135 crore...but yes it's an impending public health emergency," said Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar in an exclusive interview to ETV Bharat.
Gangakhedkar said that it's time we should control the virus from spreading.
"If we are not able to control, it will emerge as a major public health emergency. It will require public health system to respond to the challenge that this virus can probably provide," said Gangakhedkar.
Gangakhedkar, head of epidemiology and communicable disease division of the ICMR said that ICMR has been able to isolate COVID-19. "India became the fifth county to isolate COVID-19 virus strain. And isolation is the first step towards expediting the development of drugs, vaccine and rapid diagnostic kits in the country," Gangakhedkar said.
With the isolation of COVID-19, ICMR, the apex health research body of India, in fact, moved a step ahead towards finding a vaccine for COVID-19.
Read: Govt notifies Covid-19 as 'disaster'; announces Rs 4L ex-gratia for deaths
Countries like Japan, Thailand, the United States, and China are the four other countries that have isolated COVID-19. ICMR has been closely working with the Ministry of Health and other departments to coordinate the effort to tackle COVID-19.
ICMR which is also the testing agency for the virus has expanded its network of lab equipped to test COVID-19 from 51 to 65. The secondary test for confirmation of the virus which was earlier conducted only in the National Institute of Virology (NIV, Pune) have also been expanded to 31 Labs.
Gangakhedkar said that this step will enable India to expedite the detection of the virus and will help ineffective management. Interestingly, COVID-19 at present is in stage 2 in India.
"In stage 1 we get the disease imported. In stage 2, the person with COVID-19 positive spread it to the close contacts and stage 3 is community transmission," Gangakhedkar said. He said that precautions will help India to stop entering stage 3 which has happened in other countries including Italy China-US and Europe.
"We are not much worried up till stage 2. Stage 3 where the communities will be affected and in large areas that are worrisome," Gangakhedkar. He said that once it goes to the community, it controls will be difficult. Referring to the anti-Covid drugs, Gangakhedkar said that China is already working on it.
"They got two and a half months of early initiation. I believe they will be the first to announce the drugs, or else we are also in line to do our best," said Gangakhedkar adding "Chinese trial will help India in developing the drugs with our clinical trials and experiments."
China already did 77 clinical totals for COVID-19.
Also, read: COVID-19: Centre restricts passenger movement through immigration checkposts
