Covid-19 situation grim in MP, says CM Shivraj

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday said coronavirus pandemic situation in the state was grim.

Mr Chouhan who cancelled his election rally in Damoh, which goes to assembly by-polls on April 17, on Wednesday owing to sudden spike in coronavirus positive cases and fatalities in the state, said the pandemic has threatened to go out of control.

The CM said he had to cancel the election rally to oversee the mitigation measures being undertaken by his government to tackle the pandemic.

Mr Chouhan said the government was mulling to deploy helicopters to supply life saving drugs such as Remdesivir to each district in the state to save the lives of Covid-19 patients.

Besides, moves were afoot to procure oxygen from oxygen plants in Rourkela in Odisha and Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and send the oxygen cylinders to different district hospitals in trains.

Supply of oxygen and Ramdesivir drugs would be streamlined in the state in a few days, he added.

He said the government has decided to set up eight oxygen concentration units in the state. Of them, four units have been commissioned.

Meanwhile, a 11-daycorona curfew has been clamped in Rewa and Chhatarpur from 9 pm on Wednesday. Nine-day corona curfew has earlier been clamped in 11 cities, including Bhopal since Saturday evening.

MP on Wednesday reported biggest singleday spike in coronavirus positive cases since the pandemic broke out in March last year.

The state on Wednesday reported 9,720 positive cases taking the tally of cases to 3,63,352.

The state has recorded 51 deaths taking the total toll to 4312.

— PTI A patient receives primary treatment inside an ambulance at the Covid-19 OPD of the government civil hospital in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. Since the last week, a long queue of ambulances carrying coronavirus positive patients has been seen outside the hospital building. The state government, however, downplayed the incident, saying the admission of patients is being carried out as per the protocols which just cannot be discarded.