No community transmission yet, 500 samples test negative for Covid-19: ICMR

The director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Balram Bhargava, said on Tuesday that the country's apex health research body had not discovered any evidence of community transmission of Covid-19 yet and that all 500 random samples had tested negative for coronavirus. 

"We at ICMR are regularly monitoring for community transmissions. Our labs are looking at random samples of patients who suffer from influenza like illnesses/ severe acute," he said. ICMR had collected 1020 random samples nationally between March 1 and 15. The results of the remaining 520 samples will be available Wednesday, March 18.

Bhargava further said