At a time when Madhya Pradesh needed the Health Minister the most, to coordinate the state's action to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak, it doesn't have one. For that matter, Madhya Pradesh doesn't even have a cabinet and Shivraj Singh Chouhan took over as the new chief minister of the state on March 23rd has been running a one-man government ever since.

BCCL

Chouhan became the CM following the resignation of Congress leader Kamal Nath from the post after 22 MLA who were loyal to former MP Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned and subsequently joined BJP.



The political drama was playing out at a time when the state had seven COVID-19 cases. The health crisis has since imploded.

BCCL

As of Saturday, Madhya Pradesh has 451 cases and 36 deaths due to COVID-19 and Indore is one of the worst affected cities in the country. What makes the situation even worse is the number of top bureaucrats, who in the absence of a health minister should have led the department, getting infected with COVID-19.



Till now 32 Health Officials, including two IAS officers have been tested positive for COVID-19, while many more are in self-isolation. Those tested positive so far include Principal Secretary Pallavi Jain Govil and Additional Director (Health) Veena Sinha, IAS officer and Health Corporation MD J.J. Vijay Kumar. Pallavi Jain Govil and Veena Sinha were admitted to Bhopal AIIMS and their family members were also quarantined.

BCCL

In Bhopal, the residential areas of ministers, bureaucrats and the governor are now containment zones due to the outbreak. Health Commissioner Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Jain and many other officials have had to self-quarantine.

50 health workers, including doctors, and 12 police personnel have also been tested positive for COVD-19 in Bhopal.

BCCL

In MP, Indore leads the tally with 235 COVID-19 cases followed by Bhopal, which has 98 patients of the infection which has now spread to 20 districts of the state. The state, having a population of over 7.5 crores, has a total of 993 ventilators and 1,598 ICU beds in government and private hospitals put together (as on April 9, 2020, rpt April 9, 2020), according to the data. Overall, 29,914 beds, including 9,492 in isolation wards, are available in the states hospitals, the data said.

BCCL

If compared to the total population, Madhya Pradesh has just one ventilator (whose count now stands at 993) for about every 75,000 people and one ICU bed for every 47,000, it showed.