Four Ways ICMR Is Making It Hard to Take Its Word on Community Transmission

The COVID-19 pandemic is a worrying public health emergency for India. As is the case in such emergencies, both journalists and public health experts are thirsty for data about the Indian government’s efforts to contain the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Such data allows these groups to ascertain if the efforts are adequate. It also makes the non-expert citizen more confident that the government has a coherent, well-thought-out strategy in place, and encourages them to follow government advisories on interventions such as social-distancing.

Unfortunately, between the three central health agencies coordinating India’s COVID-19 responses today – the Ministry of Health, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) – there have been multiple instances of both miscommunication and opacity.

Here are some examples, and my experience dealing with them as a Bengaluru-based reporter.

My experiences reflect those of many other reporters, especially those based outside Delhi who don’t have physical access to officials from these agencies, and can’t ask questions at the ICMR’s and health ministry’s televised press conferences. This isn’t ideal because the practice of public health is impossible without clear communication.

As of March 19, the ICMR has been standing ground that there is no evidence of community transmission in India. But as public health experts have been repeating for ages: “If you don’t look, you will not find.” And there are several questions about whether ICMR is looking hard enough for COVID-19 cases.

ICMR’s testing strategy, shared during its March 17 press conference and in this document, has two parts. The first part applies to people with travel history from 14 high-risk countries. These people are first quarantined, and if they develop symptoms, samples from their throat and nose are sent to one of ICMR’s network of Virus Research Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDLs) to test for the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. At the same time, everyone who has come in contact with lab-confirmed patients is also quarantined. If any of these ‘contacts’ develop symptoms, their samples are sent to VRDLs for tests. People who don’t meet any of these criteria can’t ask to be tested for COVID-19 (again, as of March 19).

The wire