india

Updated: Apr 24, 2020 15:35 IST

Covid-19 hot spot Indore’s tally of cases crossed 1,000 on Friday with no sign of a let-up in the situation even after a month of lockdown and curfew restrictions in the city known as the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh.

Ujjain, a district neighbouring Indore, has emerged as another hot spot of Covid-19 cases in the state with 76 infections reported so far.

The chief medical and health officer (CMHO) of Indore, Praveen Jadia, said: “With new cases, Indore now has 1,029 Covid-19 cases. Two more deaths have been reported, taking the tally of deaths to 55. However, most of the new cases are either from among those who are already quarantined or hospitalised in Covid-19 care hospitals.”

Coronavirus outbreak: Full coverage

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis in Bhopal said Madhya Pradesh was in the sixth position on a nationwide tally of Covid-19 patients according to an analysis done on Thursday, and Indore accounted for 58% of all cases in the state.

Also, 65% of the dead and 49% of those who recovered were from Indore, the institute said.

Jadia said a total of 1,817 teams engaged in surveys and screening have covered about 1.5 million people in Indore so far, and are expected to complete covering the entire city in the “next four days or so”.

According to the health department’s bulletin on Thursday evening, Madhya Pradesh has recorded 1,687 infections, with smaller districts showing signs of an alarming increase in patients.

There was an increase of 25 patients in Ujjain, talking the tally to 76. Apart from Indore and Ujjain, three districts in the Malwa-Nimad region – Khargone, Khandwa and Dhar – had 51, 35 and 36 patients, respectively, as of Thursday.

Other districts where the number of patients is increasing include Jabalpur (30), Raisen (26), Hoshangabad (26), Barwani (24) and Dewas (20).

Public health expert Amulya Nidhi said, “The alarming increase in small cities while the state government is not able to control the situation in Indore and Bhopal should set alarm bells ringing in the administration...It needs to undertake measures very fast to control the situation not only in the affected districts but other districts too. As many as 26 districts of the total of 52 have been affected.”

In a letter written to secretary of the Union health ministry, a copy of which is available with Hindustan Times, Nidhi and SR Azad, another public health expert, wrote: “Several districts of Madhya Pradesh have shown decreasing number of patients in the past few days, which is not possible until and unless there are inaccurate sample test reports in such cases or there are some administrative issues. This is a serious issue. The Central government must take cognisance of the same.”

Additional chief secretary (health) Mohammed Suleman and commissioner (health services) Faiz Ahmad Kidwai couldn’t be reached for comments. Earlier, Suleman had said, “Variations in data come after reconciliation between lab and district data. Repeat samples and rejections need to be factored in.”