Coronavirus Lockdown: Madhya Pradesh’s Indore under strict lockdown! With the number of positive COVID-19 cases on an increasing spree, Indore officials have asserted that the city is under the “country’s strictest lockdown” with massive sanitisation drives, geo-tagging of quarantined people, and incineration of waste material, the IE reported. According to the report, from March 28, a complete shutdown was declared in the city and as a result, all the essentials including food, milk and groceries are being delivered to the doorsteps of people. The officials have identified 13 items that are the most essential which includes potatoes and onion. The report citing Indore Nagar Nigam Commissioner Asheesh Singh said that nothing is open but medical shops in the city.
People living in the city are given a format where they can select the items they need. Apart from this, the city has focused on maintaining the cleanliness in the city so there are no delivery glitches. The report said that the city has 470 waste-collection vehicles. Special vehicles collect the waste from some areas that are under quarantine. The collected waste from here is treated as “biomedical waste” and is sent for incineration, the report added. Moreover, 22 large tankers having 20,000 litres of capacity each along with 11 special farm machines as well as two drones are used to spray disinfectants. The report said that the people under quarantine are also being traced using technological means like mobile applications.
The question is what led Indore to take extensive measures to curb the impact of Coronavirus? It is to note that Madhya Pradesh’s largest city currently has 544 positive COVID-19 cases where 117 cases were reported in just one day. While 37 have already been declared dead, 39 people have recovered from the infection. Now in such a scenario, the city has to send its samples to Delhi as the city has just one testing facility with a capacity of testing around 200 samples in a day. The report said that due to the lack of preparedness as the first wave of Coronavirus hit the city, Indore currently has one of the highest mortality rates. Therefore, the officials are not mapping the city and identifying possible clusters/ areas by door-to-door screening.
The city, which earlier had 600 beds, has increased its number of beds to 800. The report citing the officials indicated that a spike in the number of positive Coronavirus cases is expected before it becomes stable and hence, it is imperative to take such strict measures. Meanwhile, the city’s two private colleges and a private lab are waiting to get permission from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct Coronavirus tests.
