Coronavirus - Madhya Pradesh City Claims Major Success In Breaking COVID-19 Chain

Coronavirus: Jabalpur Police enforced a strict lockdown the city.

With no new coronavirus cases in the last 12 days, local authorities in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur have claimed a major success in breaking the COVID-19 infection cycle at the local transmission level.

Located about 300 km from Bhopal, Jabalpur was the first to report not one but four of the first coronavirus cases in Madhya Pradesh.

A jeweller, his wife and teenage daughter who returned from Dubai and a student who returned from Germany had tested positive for the deadly virus on March 20.

The very next day, the local administration declared a total lockdown in the city of over 20 lakh people.

Collector Bharat Yadav gave instructions to track down every single person that the four patients had come in contact with since arriving in Madhya Pradesh.

The entire police and intelligence network was mobilized and primary contacts of the four patients were traced on the same night not only in Jabalpur, but as far as 132 km away in Mandla.

All primary and secondary contacts were home isolated and those showing COVID-19 symptoms were quarantined at the hospital.

The administration also put around 600 people with travel history to the coronavirus-affected countries under home quarantine and said anyone who violated the orders would be prosecuted.

Superintendent of Police Amit Singh led the city's police to ensure strict adherence to social distancing with an army of around 2,000 young volunteers named Corona Police Fighters.

They were tasked with ensuring social distancing outside grocery, medicine shops and milk booths.

The Jabalpur Police also started issuing green, red, yellow and white coloured warning cards to shop owners, bikers and other individuals for violating lockdown.

As a result of these strict measures, four of the eight coronavirus patients in the city - including the jeweller, his wife, the student from Germany and a contact of the jeweller who were treated at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College Hospital have been released after testing negative.

While Jabalpur has not recorded a single new case in the last 12 days, the number of coronavirus cases in Madhya Pradesh has risen to 313 with 57 new cases reported in the state on Tuesday.

Twenty-four cases were reported in Bhopal, taking the number of COVID-19 patients in the city to 85, a health official said.

The number of deaths due to coronavirus in the state now stands at 23, said the health officials.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said his government will extend the ongoing nationwide lockdown in the state if needed.