Health Min back on the job; speaks on 'community spread'
new delhi: Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday resumed his duties as a Cabinet minister after making a full recovery from COVID-19 and admitted that there is "spread through the community" in Delhi. However, Jain also said that the decision over whether to call it community transmission was in the Centre's domain and that the Union government will decide whether it is local or community spread.
"There is spread through the community, now it's very technical to say either it's local or community spread. Source of many (COVID-19 positive patients) remains unknown after the test. Let's leave the technical battle on the Centre to decide over community spread," he said.
The battle over whether to declare community transmission has raged on for months now with Jain earlier also saying Delhi was likely to be in community transmission. However, even at earlier appearances, the Health Minister maintained that it was up to the Centre to officially declare whether community spread was underway.
Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association and various other doctors across the country have sounded the alarm over the issue and said that it would be naive to work under the perception that there is no community spread.
Jain had tested positive for the contagious disease last month and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had taken over his portfolios while he was recovering. Jain was first admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital here but then transferred to Max's Saket facility following complications. He also spent a few days in the ICU after developing pneumonia.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal welcomed Jain back in a tweet. "Our Health Minister Satinder Jain has recovered. He will join work from today. He was always on the field visiting hospitals and meeting health workers and patients. He contracted corona. After one month, he joins back today. Welcome back Satinder and best wishes!" he tweeted.
AAP MLA Atishi and two other leaders of the party had also contracted coronavirus in the month of June with the three of them having recovered from the disease.
