According to a report carried by a leading newspaper for the second consecutive day on Tuesday less than 6,000 new Covid-19 positive cases were reported in the state. A day before, on May 17, it was nearly after 5 weeks in Madhya Pradesh that less than 6,000 new Covid-19 positive cases were reported. It was on April 11 that previously less than 6,000 (5939 new cases) were reported in the state.

A total of 5,412 new cases were reported in the state on Tuesday taking the total count of cases to 7,42,718. And a positivity rate of less than 8% was reported after more than one and a half months. A positivity rate – number of people tested positive out of every 100 samples tested – of 7.7 was reported in the state on Tuesday as 5,412 people were found positive out of 69,453 samples tested. Thus on an average 7.7 out of every 100 samples tested were found positive on Tuesday. And Tuesday was also the fifth consecutive day in the state when less than 9,000 new Covid-19 cases were reported in the state in a single day after more than a month.

On the brighter side, number of active cases further decreased on Tuesday. On May 16, there were 88,983 active cases in the state which decreased to 82,967 on May 17. The number of people recovering from disease also outnumbered the number of people testing positive as 11,358 people recovered from the disease on Tuesday. With these recoveries, the number of people who have recovered so far from Covid-19 and have been discharged from the hospitals reached 6,52,612.

At the same time 70 deaths were reported in a single day in the state. With these, deaths toll due to Covid-19 reached 7139.

New cases were reported from all the 52 districts of the state. Barring three districts - Khandwa, Alirajpur and Ashok Nagar - all other districts in the state reported more than 10 cases. The highest number of cases were reported from Indore where 1,262 tested positive, followed by Bhopal where 661 tested positive and 306 patients were found in Jabalpur district.

For many days there used to be terrible scarcity of beds and medicines but there is slight improvement in these areas also. Roughly 25% of critical care ICU and HDU beds for Covid-19 treatment are now vacant for the first time in Bhopal during the current infection surge. Compared to a week ago, the vacancy of beds increased from 262 to 556 beds, according to a health department data.

As on Tuesday there were 12,572 active cases of Covid-19 in Bhopal. During the same time last week, the number of active cases was 15,937. Dip in patient numbers was about 3,000. An estimated 40% of patients are hospitalised or under quarantine outside the home. 50 people have died in the start capital due to Covid-19 in the past week.

"While the number of cases in need for critical hospitalised care has dropped, the death toll continues to be high", Said Dr. Rajiv Singh. One of the reasons continues to be the need for antifungal medication like Amphotericin B.

Around 700 doses of the injection have been provided in Gandhi Medical College (GMC), Bhopal alone in the last 48 hours. According to an official. "300 injections were made available on Tuesday," Mucormycosis, often termed 'black fungus' in patients with Covid-19 who were recovering from Covid has been reported in many cases.

According to some experts, a patient can need up to 60 injections of an antifungal medication. A dose of four is injected in one go and the medication may be required for up to two weeks.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan earned kudos and appreciation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for certain innovative steps taken in the state. Modi in particular referred to public participation model adopted by Madhya Pradesh.

Modi said that Crisis Management Groups have been formed at the district, block and panchayat levels in MP and representatives of all the political parties have been included in the group. This is the best way to connect with the people.

Modi was interacting with state and district officials from all over the country through video conferencing regarding their experience during the Corona pandemic. The Chief Minister joined the programme virtually from his residence.

By involving public representatives we can use their energy in the fight against Corona, Modi said. Corona infection is spreading in villages where manpower and public support is a must to face it.

The Prime Minister said that if other states also work like Madhya Pradesh in the direction of involving political parties in the fight against Corona, it will prove to be more effective.

In the virtual dialogue, information was shared about the strategy and innovation adopted by the district authorities and the best practices adopted by the districts and the states.

The public participation model of Madhya Pradesh was the only state-level public participation model in the presentation of best practices before the Prime Minister, whereas all other best practices were of district level. Along with this, public participation was also received in the management and vaccination of Covid.

Crisis Management Groups include public representatives of all political parties. It is only with their initiative and cooperation that the "Janata Curfew" is being implemented which helped break the chain of infection. Public support was also sought in tracing and testing. (IPA Service)