32 officials infected as virus hits M.P. Health Department

State grapples to locate the source of the outbreak

07/04/2020, SIDHARTH YADAV,BHOPAL

Safety first: A police official standing inside a mist disinfection tunnel in Bhopal on Monday. PTIPTI

The Madhya Pradesh Directorate of Health Services is floundering to locate the source of the COVID-19 outbreak in its office building which had infected 32 employees, from the senior-most officials to personal assistants and peons, in the past five days. This makes up the largest chunk of the 62 patients in Bhopal.

On Sunday and Monday, 29 of the 44 who had tested positive for the virus were Health officials, including doctors. Currently, every second patient in the capital belongs to the Department. Whereas 20 patients were members of the Tablighi Jamaat in Bhopals, five belong to the police.

“We don’t know the source yet,” said Sapna M. Lovanshi, Additional Director at the Directorate. “We have not been able to secure any information on it so far.”

The infected included the Principal Secretary of the State Public Health and Family Welfare Department, Deputy Directors, Additional Directors and even class-4 employees, she added. “Almost all the employees at the Directorate had had direct contact with at least one of the infected officials,” she said.

At a time when the mortality rate due to the disease hovered around 6% in the State, one of the worst in the country, the Additional Director who is tasked with implementing strategies to combat the outbreak State-wide, the Managing Director of the Madhya Pradesh Public Health Services Corporation Limited, also the State Ayushman Bharat Yojana CEO, tasked with procuring drugs and instruments, the Joint Director tasked with managing hospitals and the Additional Director in-charge of managing manpower, have all been infected.

“An official, who returned from Indore after meeting his wife there is suspected of being the source. But this is yet to be established,” said a Deputy Director.

The government is preparing a list of second-line officials as a contingency plan. “Even the Health Commissioner has kept replacements ready if the need be,” he added.