MP health dept staff account for half of Bhopal’s COVID-19 cases
With so many health officials, including those who had interacted with the chief minister and other bureaucrats, testing positive for the infection, the government has kept an alternate list of officers ready.
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From the in-charge of the health department to deputy directors to an epidemiologist to clerks, as many as 31 of them have tested positive for the infection. (Representational/File)
Officials from Madhya Pradesh health department, who are spearheading the state’s fight against COVID-19, account for about half the number of positive cases from Bhopal.
From the in-charge of the health department to deputy directors to an epidemiologist to clerks, as many as 31 of them have tested positive for the infection.
With so many health officials, including those who had interacted with the chief minister and other bureaucrats, testing positive for the infection, the government has kept an alternate list of officers ready.
Bhopal has so far reported 61 COVID-19 cases. The capital reported its first COVID-19 death late on Sunday night when a 52-year-old man succumbed to the infection. Bhopal is now under strict lockdown.
More than 20 COVID-19 cases in Bhopal have been traced to the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi and reports on some samples are awaited.
Members of 10 Jamaats currently in Bhopal had visited the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in March. “During their stay in Bhopal, they visited 30 mosques. We tested the jamaatis after checking their travel history,” a police officer said.
“It’s difficult to estimate the extent of spread because nearly 75 per cent of Jamaat members showed no symptoms and must have interacted with many people. That’s why we have imposed a strict lockdown,’’ the officer said.
Meanwhile, Principal Secretary (Health) Pallavi Jain Govil, who earned praise from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for choosing to work despite testing positive, did not release a video bulletin on Monday.The bulletin was released on Monday by Health Commissioner Faiz Ahmed Kidwai.
Govil had come under criticism by a section of local media for not isolating herself after her son returned from the US on March 16. She could not be reached for comments.
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