Lauding the resilience of Indore city in fighting off the pandemic of covid-19, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here claimed that novel coronavirus had found its foothold in Indore city in February this year.
In his first administrative visit outside Bhopal after assuming office as Chief Minister in fourth term, Chouhan reached Indore on Monday morning and took stock of the situation of the covid-19 fight. Talking to media persons, Chouhan claimed, “Covid-19 had started knocking at the doors of MP in the month of February and in the same month, it found foothold in Indore through international flights.” Indore collector Manish Singh weeks ago too had blamed international fliers for spreading corona in Feb-March.
Meanwhile, Chouhan however lauded the resilience of Indore city including the administration, locals, health machinery and volunteer organisations in fighting off this virus. He had also met municipal workers early in the day in a function and applauded their efforts while felicitating them. Chouhan had also met kin of those who died fighting off this virus.Locals coupled with volunteer organisations set an example in service during corona outbreak and served the migrants in their full capacity, he said. Chouhan meanwhile addressing the media said that while he assumed office on March 23, he realised that the State was hardly equipped to fight off this virus.
“In my first review meeting, I was told that MP had a testing capacity of 60 samples a day which has now surged to 6,000 samples daily at 20 labs in the state,” pointed out Chouhan.He said the recovery rate has improved smartly in MP as well as Indore. Earlier active cases were around 3,100 while the same are around 2,600 now, claimed the Chief Minister adding MP’s recovery rate has surged to 68% which is at 64% in Indore.
“We are proceeding towards win on corona in Indore but still we require not to lower our guard,” said Chouhan underlining the crucial importance of safety norms.In April start, we carried out 2200 tests per million population in Indore which have surged to 12400 per million in June, added the Chief Minister.
He claimed that in the fight with the virus, the MP Government had tied up with private hospitals and only one third of the beds reserved for covdi-19 patients are required to be used in the State. We have got good results of Oxygen therapy ie checking Oxygen level of the patient on admission and offering him Oxygen as per his /her condition, and we are improving Oxygen supply across the state.
It was Chouhan’s first visit to Indore despite the district being number one in covid-19 cases in MP and the Congress party was for long slamming the CM for avoiding a visit to trouble-torn district despite corona outbreak.