The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) on Sunday said there is no evidence as of now that Coronavirus was airborne.

“We need to understand that in science whoever does experiments, there will be different opinions, but we need to take a balanced, evidence-based approach,” an ICMR official said.

“For example, if it was an air-borne infection, then in a family whoever has a contact they all should come positive because they are living in the same surroundings as the patient and the family is breathing the same air. When someone is admitted in the hospital, other patients would have got exposure (if it was airborne) but that is not the case,” the official said.

With 472 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country has gone up to 3,374, said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday.

“A total of 3,374 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in India till now as 472 new cases were reported since yesterday. A total of 79 deaths have been reported so far including 11 deaths reported since yesterday,” said Aggarwal.

As many as 267 persons have recovered from COVID-19 in the country so far, Aggarwal said. “A total of 274 districts across the country have reported coronavirus cases till date,” he added.

(With agency inputs)