Coronavirus infects Indore's image amid rising cases, deaths

Indore, Apr 17 () Despite being under a strictcurfew since late March and enjoying the status of India'scleanest city, Indore has acquired the dubious distinction ofrecording a very high coronavirus mortality rate.

Till Friday morning, the city had clocked 849 COVID-19cases, and the 47 deaths here since the outbreak began lessthan a month ago are 10.75 per cent of the 437 fatalitiesrecorded across the country.

The 5.58 per cent death rate in the city is itselfabove the national average, officials point out.

Madhya Pradesh has so far recorded 1,299 coronaviruscases and 63 deaths, with Indore leading other cities on bothcounts by a wide margin.

While the outbreak, the rapidly rising number ofinfections and the resultant deaths are the staple of almostall conversations here, Indore Divisional Commissioner AkashTripathi defended the administration over its handling of thehealth crisis in Madhya Pradesh's commercial capital.

"Of the first 30 people who died of COVID-19 here, 22had co-morbidities like diabetes, high BP and other ailments.Amajority of them got admitted when their conditions had turnedserious," Tripathi said.

While some social activists have claimed the numbersbeing tested for the infection are inadequate, Tripathi saidthe government laboratory here had increased testing from 40samples a day in the initial period of the outbreak to 300 perday now.

"We have sought permission from the government toallow two private labs to test samples," he said, adding sofar, 3,500 samples have been tested in Indore, a majority ofthem falling in the high risk category.

As on Friday, there are 155 containment areas,covering almost 6 lakh residents in a city of 30 lakh, andcurfew continues to be in force since March 25 when the firstCOVID-19 case was detected here.

Meanwhile, authorities continue to maintain there wasno threat of community transmission in the city.

"The new COVID-19 cases are mainly of those who areeither related to or have known the earlier patients. Suchpersons are already quarantined and, therefore, the questionof community transmission does not arise," Chief Medical andHealth Officer Praveen Jadia said.

On Thursday, five people died in Indore of theinfection, of which two were brothers, 63 and 52 years of age,both bullion businessmen.

"I got my father and uncle admitted in a privatehospital on Tuesday but they died within two days. My fatherhad no ailment while my uncle was suffering from high bloodpressure. We are still to come to terms with the deaths, allof this having happened so quickly," one of the bulliontraders son said.

He said the protocol in place for those dying of theinfection meant the family could not even catch a last glimpseof their loved ones during the last rites.

All 16 members in the family of the two deceased havebeen quarantined and the civic body's health department isoverseeing arrangements.

Meanwhile, to give more teeth to efforts to containthe outbreak, the state government posted 102 doctors toIndore on April 11, though several of them are yet to joinwork.

The state has now warned that it would invoke theEssential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to get them to fallin line. HWP MAS BNMRSY RSY