india

Updated: Apr 03, 2020 21:44 IST

Around 80% of the Covid-19 positive people in Indore do not have a known travel history, the health officials said, pointing at the possible local transmission of the virus in Madhya Pradesh’s business capital.

Indore recorded its first Covid-19 case on March 25, five days after the first four cases in the state were reported from Jabalpur. Four cases were reported that day, which included one each from Ranipura, Chandan Nagar and Khajrana localities in Indore, which emerged as Covid-19 clusters within a week.

Till March 29, Indore reported a marginal increase in cases every day: four on the 25th, five on the 26th, four each on the 27th and the 28th and three on the 29th. The spurt began on March 30, when 19 new cases were reported, and since then 61 new positive cases have been reported from the city, taking the total figure to 82 till Thursday night. Madhya Pradesh has 107 total cases.

A health department official, who was not willing to be named, said when the initial cases were reported there was not much screening of people in these densely populated localities and the complete lockdown was also not strictly enforced. “This may have caused some community spread,” the official said.

Sensing trouble, the MP government on March 30, replaced then collector, Lokesh Kumar Jatav, and the then DIG police, Ruchivardhan Mishra, with Manish Singh, as the new collector, and Harinarayan Chari Mishra, as the new DIG of police. Jatav refused to comment on the alleged lapses during initial stages saying the new collector should brief the media about the Indore situation.

As the days passed, the Covid-19 pandemic spread to newer localities such as Daulatganj and Azad Nagar, neighbouring the ones from where the first four cases were reported, clearly showing that lockdown was not enforced.

The localities cited by the administration are Muslim-dominated localities, having a combined population of 3.5 lakh to 4 lakh, according to Muslim community leaders. A sizeable section of the population comes from the middle and lower classes.

What has shocked the health officials is that there’s no travel history of 80% of the Covid-19 cases till Thursday night. Chief medical and health officer (CMHO), Indore, Dr Praveen Jadia said, “Most of the cases don’t have a travel history. We suspect that the first four cases may have got the disease from one source and may have unknowingly spread it to others.”

Anwar Qadri, Muslim community leader and corporator in Indore, agreed with him and said that except a couple of them none has any travel history to the best of his knowledge. “We are also baffled as to how the virus spread so fast in these localities,” he said, that unlike other places Indore Muslims were not associated with Tablighi Jamaat, except an insignificant number.

A government official, who didn’t want to be named, said direct flights between Indore and Dubai were introduced last year, they have been suspended now. “There is a possibility that people from Indore who travelled to Dubai contracted the virus there,” he said.

Even three days after the spurt happened, the district administration is yet to complete contact tracking of all Covid patients. Commissioner, Indore division Akash Tripathi said, “We are trying to know as to how many persons came in contact with Covid-19 positive cases to identify and screen such people. But we are yet to know as to from whom it all started.”

He admitted that social media had added to their problems as people in these localities were resisting screening because of rumours related to the disease on different platforms, including WhatsApp.

A section of people believing in the rumour that persons being picked for quarantine in Indore will be injected with a ‘Corona injection’ led to attack on four health workers, after which chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had asked officials to book the miscreants under stringent National Security Act (NSA). “Rumours were one of the reasons behind the attack,” said deputy inspector general (DIG) of police, Indore, Harinarayan Chari Mishra.

Indore Shahar Qazi, Mohammed Ishrat Ali, has appealed to Muslim community not to believe rumours and cooperate with the health department team in identifying and treating coronavirus affected people.

The state government health bulletin said only 9% of people affected by coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh have travel history in comparison to 25% at the national level while 40% got it through contact transmission in comparison to 46% at the national level.