Indore: Indore, India's cleanest city and commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, now holds the ignominious distinction of being the COVID-19 zone in Madhya Pradesh with 19 positive cases emerging from the city in the last four days.

Out of these 19 cases, 16 are from Indore and three are from the neighbouring Ujjain, about 60km from Indore. Till now, a man and woman — Rabiya Bi from Ujjain and Abdul Hameed — have died after testing positive for the virus. Both were 65 years of age.

For weeks, while the rest of the world fought the deadly coronavirus, Indore, the city of Holkars, did not report a single positive case till Wednesday when the test report of suspects were confirmed. These included the elderly woman from Ujjain who died a day later. The toll has now risen to 19, including three from Ujjain being treated in the city.

The alarming spread among the patients has also concerned authorities as those who tested positive had no significant travel history, barring two friends who had undertaken a trip to Vaishno Devi and returned to Indore via Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, which sees a large number of international tourist footfall. One of them also reportedly took a foreign trip, sources said.

The Ujjain woman, too, allegedly came in touch with some relatives who had recently returned from Dubai. The administration, however, is yet to verify these claims.

Barring the two friends who toured outside the city amid Covid-19 scare, most others have no significant travel history or contact with any foreign national. All these seem to have transmitted the disease through infected persons locally.

However, the city, which invokes awe and inspiration from the visitors due to its disciplined approach towards sanitation and hygiene has, much to the surprise of people, exhibited haphazard behaviour in following social distancing to halt the virus spread.

It all started on last Wednesday when the first five positive patients were detected, followed by five each in the next two days. In the wee hours of Saturday, four more added to this tally.

Unfortunately, the locals still appear to be ignoring the safety guidelines and deciphering the social distancing calls. This was evident on March 22 when people out of their houses in large numbers and turn the ‘janata curfew’ into a celebration.

Large gatherings were also witnessed in the iconic Rajwada and Patnipura area on the same day and a clueless administration had followed it up with booking scores for violations. The aimless and irrational movement of people on city roads also continues till date.

The locals also used the odd-even scheme implemented on Saturday as an opportunity to move around freely in the city. Sabzi mandis are also witnessing huge crowds. The areas with large population of minorities have also been making a mockery of safety guidelines, despite a majority of patients hailing from these areas.

Those aware of the gravity of the situation are appalled with the careless attitude of the locals. “I feel people are reluctant and not understanding the gravity of situation. They are not cooperating with local authorities which, I think, is the possible reason for more cases in Indore,” said Dr Vishal Jain, a laparoscopic surgeon in the city.

“The over-smartness of the high-class society and ignorance of the lower-class society people has been the cause of this mess. People are taking the administration’s request for granted and have a big gap in knowledge related to Covid-19. They are using the hosiery mask thinking it will keep them safe from the infection. All shops for essential items are opening almost at the same time which is leading to mass gatherings daily,” said Lalit Agarwal, a software engineer by profession.

This lawlessness was perhaps the reason by the Shivraj Chauhan government in the state shunted Collector Lokesh Jatav and DIG Ruchivardhan Misra on Saturday, replacing them with Manish Singh and HN Mishra, respectively. Both have handled the city in the past and Singh, known to be a hard taskmaster, is credited with the transformation of city into the cleanest city.

The administration has also decided to keep all markets closed from Monday onwards. Essentials would be supplied to at people’s doorsteps.

Meanwhile, a senior journalist summed up the reckless approach saying the geographically and climatically well-positioned city hasn’t witnessed an emergent crisis like Covid-19 ever and it has, perhaps, made the residents careless in their approach to the emerging crisis.

Speaking to News18, local groundwater scientist Sudhindra Mohan Sharma offered a wider picture saying the city being a densely populated urban centre with large numbers of migrants, thanks to Indore being an education hub and transit point for traders and tourists who visit the region, was always prone to an epidemic like the current one.

“A mega centre of business and trade, the city sees influx of all sorts of outsiders via air route so calling the disease spread a localised affair is unjustified,” he said.

To top it all, the city saw its first operational international flight to Dubai months ago.

As the spread looms large on them, locals are hoping that the administrative reshuffle and growing awareness stems the fast pace of the deadly virus.