With 328 positive cases including 36 deaths; Indore in Madhya Pradesh is narrating a terrifying tale of covid19 assault and the city has geared up for a bigger challenge as reports of over 1,300 samples is expected to be received in next 48 hours.
Total 1,142 samples have been flown to New Delhi-based labs in a State plane on Sunday. Around 200 (daily testing capacity in Indore) samples are being tested in city lab. The seats were removed from the plane to accommodate sample boxes. The same flight is expected to bring medicines from Delhi.
Administration in Indore has claimed that portion of these reports could be received on Monday and rest of them could be clear on Tuesday.
This bulk testing, the administration is claiming, will end the backlog in the city battered by the fatal virus. As the testing has intensified, the number of positive cases have grown exponentially in the city. To add the city to stat with had minimal testing capacity of testing 40 samples a day which increased by five times recently.
However, with administration rounding up suspects in thousands, this has proved negligible.
Reports quoting findings of Rapid Response Team of the Centre had claimed that testing, a vital tool in defeating corona, was delayed by at least 15 days in Indore and the virus had made inroads in the city a fortnight prior to the lockdown announced the Centre.
The central team which had visited the city in March found that locals had contracted the disease between March 8 to 11 but exhibited symptoms from March 14 to 18.
The lockdown was announced on March 23. To add, large numbers of locals had ventured out in celebration mode at two places in the city on March 22 during the Janta Curfew.
Sensing the gravity of the situation, the district administration had clamped curfew in Indore on March 25.
Much to the confusion of health authorities, the physicians have failed to detect the source of infection among large numbers of positive cases.
Scores of areas have been declared containment zones in the city while suspects are kept at around a dozen places identified for the purpose.
Around 250 teams of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), aganwadi workers and teachers have surveyed around 16,000 homes and detected 250 people with suspected symptoms and barring 27 suspects who had mild cough, remaining have been quarantined.
Total availability of beds in the state is 29914 including 9492 for isolation and 1598 for ICU. The state has 993 ventilators available, the statement read.
Till April 11, the state has collected 8516 samples out of which 5790 have tested negative and 2197 reports are awaited. A total of 529 tested positive till Saturday which has risen to 604 on Monday morning.
In Bhopal, 140 have tested positive till now including three deaths and three others who have recovered completely.