What we feared the most has happened. The Director, Health Services has said it in so many words. Covid has now all but attained the status of a community spread. Community transmission is when there is no clear source of origin of the infection in a new community. It happens when it can no longer be identified who became infected after being exposed to someone who interacted with people from the originally infected communities. For example, community spread in Meghalaya means that cases are occurring in people who did not have any known contact with others from known hotspots. This means the pandemic is no longer related only to travel.
In the month of May this year, President of Public Health Foundation of India, Prof. K Srinath Reddy had told the media that ‘community spread’ is a matter of definition. He pointed to the spread of Covid-19 among people without history of travel or history of contact but who were concentrated around the original points of entry of foreign travelers or the travel routes of their contacts. Dr Reddy stated that community transmission has occurred in virtually every country which experienced this pandemic in a major form and India should also be prepared for it and act as though it is happening and take all precautionary containment measures. Dr Reddy reiterated that there is not only risk but actually threat of community transmission.
Three primary social behaviours have been said to help control the spread of Covid19. One, is social distancing, second is wearing a mask, third, maintaining hand hygiene by way of using sanitizers or washing the hands with soap in running water. All three are new social behaviours. In a populous country like India, social distancing is a major behavioral change. Maintaining hand hygiene which means washing the hands frequently also entails that water must be available in plenty. But that again is not the case. In fact the Expert Committee on Health in Meghalaya had found that water scarcity in large parts of Shillong makes the frequent hand-washing exercise untenable. This aspect should not be lost sight of. In fact this should be a point of rectification of a problem that has been simmering for decades.
Now that community transmission is a reality what steps will Government take? Knee-jerk reactions will lead to greater stress. It is important that Government takes a long view of the matter. What will be the consequences of re-locking the city and state? The only way forward is for everyone to live as if they have the virus and take care not to be the super spreaders It is important to change the intractably belligerent human behaviour through more innovative strategies.