Indore Collector Blames Predecessor's Coronavirus Response for Rising Number of Cases

Indore/Bhopal: A relatively quiet day on the Covid-19 front in Madhya Pradesh was surcharged with controversy when Indore District Collector Manish Singh blamed his predecessor Lokesh Jatav for not screening the passengers who took the air route into Indore during January and February this year.

"It appears that the virus mainly found its way into the city from the local airport in January and February following flyers' influx, resulting in such a condition. The alighting of flyers caused such a thing (virus spread)," Singh told media.

"As I was not posted in Indore then, I did not know what directives were issued. But I feel people numbering around 5,000 to 6,000 who returned from abroad should have been screened at the airport then," said Singh. Flyers coming from foreign lands should have been strictly confined to their homes by the health department.

With just 12 persons testing positive on Friday as compared to 361 on Thursday, the number of coronavirus cases in Madhya Pradesh climbed to 1,310, health officials said. In Bhopal, one more case was reported, which took the tally of Covid-19 patients in the state capital to 197, officials said.

Four persons tested positive in Dhar, three in Hoshangabad, and one each in Ujjain, Betul, Dewas and Mandsaur.

Apart from Bhopal, Morena district has recorded 14 cases, Jabalpur 13, Ujjain 31 (one new), Hoshangabad 19 (03 new), Khargone 39, Barwani 22, Raisen 08, Gwalior six, Khandwa 33, Dewas 18 (one new), Sheopur 3, Vidisha 13, Chhindwara 4, Satna two, Dhar 10 (4 new), Shivpuri two, Ratlam 12, Shajapur 5, Mandsaur 8 (one new), Agar Malwa 4 and Betul 2 (one new), Tikamgarh, Alirajpur and Sagar one each, health officials said.

Six more deaths were reported since late Thursday night, including four in Dewas and one each in Khargone and Bhopal, taking the state's death toll due to Covid-19 to 69, the state health officials said.

Of the 69 deaths, 47 were reported from Indore alone. So far, six persons each have died in Bhopal and Ujjain, five in Dewas, four in Khargone and one in Chhindwara.