Indore:With a total of 327 positive cases, including 33 deaths, Indore in Madhya Pradesh is narrating a terrifying tale of Covid-19 assault. The city is now gearing up for a bigger challenge as reports of over 1,300 samples is expected to come in next the 48 hours.

As many as 1,142 samples were flown to New Delhi-based labs in a state plane on Sunday and to accommodate the sample boxes, seats had to be removed from the aircraft. The same flight is expected to bring medicines back from Delhi. Around 200 (daily testing capacity in Indore) samples are being tested in a city lab. The Indore administration has claimed that a portion of these reports could be received on Monday and the rest of them could be clear on Tuesday.

This bulk testing, the administration says, will end the backlog in the city which is battered by the fatal virus. As the testing has intensified, the number of positive cases has also grown exponentially. Till recently, Indore had the minimal capacity of testing 40 samples a day but it has now been increased by five times. However, with administration rounding up suspects in thousands, this increase has proved negligible.

Reports quoting findings of Rapid Response Team of the Centre had claimed that the testing, a vital tool in defeating coronavirus, was delayed by at least 15 days in Indore and the virus had made inroads in the city a fortnight prior to the lockdown announced the Centre.

The central team, which had visited the city in March, found that locals had contracted the disease between March 8 to 11 but started exhibiting symptoms from March 14 to 18.

The lockdown was announced on March 23 and a large number of locals had ventured out in celebration mode at two places in the city on March 22 during the Janta Curfew.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, the district administration had clamped curfew in Indore on March 25.

Much to the confusion of health authorities, the physicians have failed to detect the source of infection among the large numbers of positive cases.

Scores of areas have been declared containment zones in the city, while suspects are kept at around a dozen places identified for the purpose. The number of Covdi-19 specific hospitals is also being increased in the city.

Around 250 teams of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), aganwadi workers and teachers have surveyed around 16,000 homes and detected 250 people with suspected symptoms and barring 27 suspects who had mild cough, remaining have been quarantined.

The corona assault was intact in the city on Monday as 22 fresh cases were reported from the city, including the case of a man from Dewas. With this, the total number of positive cases has risen to 328 in Indore, and with the death of a 42-year-old positive patient who had cancer, the toll has risen to 33, said Dr Pravin Jadia, CMHO, Indore.

Other MP cities are also sending samples to New Delhi now. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had on Sunday told the media that samples are being sent to New Delhi for speedy test results.

Till now there are seven labs in the state, including AIIMS Bhopal, GMC Bhopal, NIRTH Jabalpur, DRDE Gwalior, BMHRC Bhopal, MG Medical College Indore and GMRC Gwalior, the state government said in a statement. There are 6,000 test kits available in the state and plans are in place to open four new virology labs.

The total availability of beds in the state is 29,914, including 9,492 for isolation and 1,598 for the ICU. The state has 993 ventilators available, the statement read.

Till April 11, the state had collected 8,516 samples, of which 5,790 tested negative and 2,197 reports are awaited. A total of 529 tested positive till Saturday and the number rose to 604 on Monday morning.

In Bhopal, 140 have tested positive till now, including three deaths and three patients who have recovered completely.