Community spread scare forces ICMR to revise testing criteria for COVID-19?

The total number of positive COVID-19 cases in India rose to 271 on Saturday, according to ICMR.

A woman in her early 40s with no travel history has tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra''s Pune city on Saturday. Also a 20 year old man who travelled by train from Delhi to Chennai tested positive for coronavirus.

These two domestic cases indicate that community transmission has already started in India. 

Health Minister 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.

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.

On Saturday, the Indian Council for Medical Research revised testing criteria for COVID-19, says all hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory illness, shortness of breath, and fever and cough will now be tested. The new ICMR guidelines also said asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case should be tested once between day 5 and day 14 of coming in his/her contact.

Indian Council of Medical Research (@ICMRDELHI) revises strategy to fight spread of #COVID19 today. All hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory illness, shortness of breath, having fever & cough will now be tested for COVID-19 infection.#IndiaFightsCoronapic.twitter.com/GioM0uaCCY

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) March 21, 2020

Community transmission occurs when a person with no travel history to a Covid-19-affected country or known contact with a confirmed case tests positive for the disease. It indicates undiagnosed and often asymptomatic people are unknowingly causing infection, which makes it difficult to break the chain of transmission.