The Director-General of Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) Balram Bhargava claimed that India is in stage 2 of coronavirusoutbreak. Stage 2 is defined as the stage where imported cases (Stage 1) havetransmission to one or more close contacts.

On the other hand, Stage three is community transmission, as is happening in Iran, Korea, the US and many parts of Europe, with the last stage being an epidemic, which devastated China. Community transmission is referred to as a situation where the virus is found in a person who has not traveled to a country with an ongoing outbreak.

"We already know that we are in stage 2. We are not instage 3, clearly as of now. There are four stages. The third stage is communitytransmission which we hope we shouldn't have. It would depend on how stronglywe close our international borders, in terms of which the government has takenvery proactive steps. But can't say that community transmission won'thappen," Bhargava said during a press conference in New Delhi.

Coronavirus has spread its wings to more than 150 countriesand has been notified in the 13 states of India. The total number of cases inthe country has reached 147.

There have been many cases where it has been learned thatthe travelers have not been in the two-week quarantine or they have slippedfrom the quarantine facilities, resulting in the quick spreading of the virus.

"We are in the process of engaging private NABLaccredited laboratories for carrying out testing of Covid-19 cases. We have 72functional ICMR laboratories in govt sector for testing; 49 more will be activeby month-end," said Bhargava.

We appeal to all private laboratories to offer Covid-19diagnosis free of cost, he added.