With 253 patients added overnight, corona cases showed a steep hike in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. The hotspot Indore and the state capital Bhopal between them shared 173 cases.
After Tuesday's high of 201 positive cases, Indore reported 131 cases by Thursday evening while Bhopal hit the 900-mark with 42 fresh cases till Thursday evening.
Burhanpur in west Madhya Pradesh became a new hotspot on Thursday with 35 cases. Thursday evening bulletin reported overall 4,426 cases in the state so far with a death toll of 232.
Bhopal also reported a rapid rise in certain city pockets. A densely populated Jahangirabad is threatening to turn into a community spread unless there is a stiffer enforcement in the containment areas.
In Indore district the numbers have been rising alarmingly for a week now. From 1,699 on May 7 the number has gone up to 2,238 at an average of 77 cases a day by Thursday morning. The death toll in the district has reached 96.
Experts say the number could be higher if the number of tests matched the dense population. The city is the business hub and a major transit centre for people moving from Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka towards north.
While Bhopal has tested 852.5 patients per lakh population in the past 50 days Indore with 379.9/lakh lies way behind. Bhopal's recovery rate is 57 per cent while Indore's 46 per cent. Even the death rate in Indore is five per cent while Bhopal's is four.
Among other hotspots Khargone also has a recovery rate of 57 per cent while Ujjain (40) Jabalpur (31) and Gwalior at 14 per cent reflect lower levels of recovery. The state recovery average is 47 per cent.
Is this attention due to Bhopal's capital privileges? No, said old timers from Indore.
Indore administration let a lot of time lapse in the blame game soon after the change of regime in March. Even now the testing facilities have matched the needs of the city and district. There have been irregularities in the purchase of PPE kits. The administration has admitted to some lapses. But corrective measures are not seen, said Om Goel, social worker.
Naresh Joshi, who has been in the media industry for long, endorses Goel's views. But he says the rise in cases could also be due to heavy movement of migrant labourers passing through the district.
The Inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) monitoring the hot spots of the country had pointed to many lacunae in the handling of Indore corona crisis. The IMCT was to release a report on its observations on the hot spot it visited. The report has not been released yet. There is no way to know if Indore took care of the issues raised by the IMCT.
( With inputs from IANS )