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Updated: Apr 20, 2020 04:55 IST

The number of Covid-19 cases in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore has gone up by 237% and led an increase in the city’s containment areas by 103% since April 10, two officials said on Sunday.

There were 82 containment zones in the city on April 10, which have since gone up to 167. Indore has the highest such zones in Madhya Pradesh.

A hard lockdown is imposed to stop the spread of the disease once an area is declared a containment zone. No one is allowed to step out their houses in such zones and essentials are delivered to the people living there. A containment area can be as small as one lane in a residential colony.

Indore reported the sharpest spike in the number of cases over the past few days. As many as 135 were diagnosed with the disease in the city on Friday and 49 on Saturday, taking the city’s tally to 891. A health official said the evening bulletin on Sunday may not be released. However, until 2 pm on Sunday, there was no change in Indore data.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 1,407 Covid-19 cases. Three states have more cases than Madhya Pradesh. Indore reported 47 Covid-19 related deaths until Saturday and they accounted for 69% of the pandemic-related fatalities in Madhya Pradesh.

Indore’s chief medical and health officer, Dr Pravid Jadia, said the trend over a couple of days shows the number of people identified as Covid-19 patients is on the decline. “In the coming days, it is going to improve further.” Jadia said the number of cases has risen due to an aggressive approach to identifying and treating patients.

Of the total 12,940 Covid-19 samples tested in Madhya Pradesh on April 12, only 2,443 were collected from Indore, which had 411 cases by then, according to the health department of Madhya Pradesh. As many as 2,816 samples were collected from Bhopal, which had 158 cases. However, as the number of cases increased, the tests were also increased to 22,569 across the state on April 18.

Indore’s collector, Manish Singh, underlined that mostly those people are testing positive who were quarantined as the administration had traced them based on contact histories. “Hence, the situation is improving by the day.”

Bhopal-based public health expert Amulya Nidhi said there should have been an aggressive approach from day one for earmarking containment zones and then screening, testing, isolating or quarantining suspected patients as well as contact tracing until these areas were declared Covid-19 free.

“Overconfidence of the government and too much bureaucratisation caused the problem. The local community was not taken into confidence,” said Nidhi. Nidhi added there could have been a better use of anganwadi, accredited social health activists etc for reaching out to more and more people for screening them. “Targeted focus on certain localities was a wrong approach. There should have been equal and effective planning for the rest of the city too,” said Nidhi, referring to his study of the government’s approach.

Nidhi added people have been seen moving out in containment zones and as many as eight quarantined people escaped from a quarantine centre in Indore. “A good coordination among police, administration and health department was badly required.”

Amulya said instead of strengthening the public health system, the government has turned to the private hospitals. “It is the government doctors and health workers who are fighting the disease not the doctors from private hospitals.”