Bhopal, (Samajweekly) The outcome of Unlock 1.0 has left people in Bhopal worried in just five days. In the first four days of June, Bhopal overtook Indore in terms of new cases of corona patients. To Indore’s 147, Bhopal reported 163 coronavirus cases. The figures for the corresponding period last month were Bhopal 55, and Indore 125.
Friday’s figures changed the picture with 55 patients testing positive in Indore against Bhopal’s 51. The two major cities have shown that they cannot handle a crisis without enough discipline.
Neemuch appeared on the corona map of the state with five cases in the first week of May and recorded a big pike in the past couple of weeks. With 38 cases reported on Friday, Neemuch has logged 290 so far.
The state reported 234 fresh cases on Friday just as the administration claimed to have checked the spread of the virus. The health department bulletin issued on Friday reported nearly 150 cases from Indore, Bhopal and Neemuch.
The police administration and the health department have some embarrassing questions to answer over the fresh spurt of cases in Indore and Bhopal.
The major hotspot in Indore was Khajrana where more than 200 patients were found positive in the past four days. Bhopal has more than a dozen such hotspots, where the number of patients has increased rapidly. This includes Jehangirabad, Aishbagh, Mangalwara, Banganga, Kotra Sultanabad, Qazi Camp, Idgah Hills and other areas.
The causes for the rapid rise in numbers in Bhopal are: People not following safe physical distancing, are moving without masks, and lack of sanitation in slums where houses are built above big gutters in narrow lanes with people constantly contacting each other.
On Thursday, 50 people from the capital’s Covid Care Hospital were reported completely cured. As of Friday, 1,258 patients have won the battle against Corona. As many as 489 patients are still admitted to the hospitals. So far, 61 people have died due to corona infection in Bhopal and 149 in Indore.
Meanwhile, a fresh controversy was triggered two days before the reopening of temples and mosques. The “sanskriti bachao samiti” in Bhopal has said no to sanitisers being used to protect devotees from viruses. The reason is alcohol. The senior Imams of the mosques have also objected to sanitisers being used and asked the faithful to wash themselves before arriving for Namaaz.
