With health dept in quarantine, MP struggles to tackle coronavirus pandemic

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government in Madhya Pradesh is finding itself in a tight spot in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. There is no Cabinet in place, and thus no health minister. Besides, the state health department, which was supposed to lead the fight against coronavirus, is almost defunct, with several top officials, including Pallavi Jain Govil, principal secretary (health), and J Vijay Kumar, managing director of MP Health Corporation and chief executive officer of the state’s Ayushman Bharat programme, testing positive.

‘Health’ crisis

After Kumar and Govil were tested positive, the government’s first response was to downplay the news. This resulted in the spreading of the virus among other health department officials. Until Sunday afternoon, Bhopal reported 134 confirmed Covid cases, including 80 health department officers and their family members. Even the coronavirus control room reported infections — Veena Sinha (additional director, health communication) and another official Pallav Dubey — were tested positive.

Yet, top officials were unwilling to go to hospitals for isolation. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhopal Director Dr Sarman Singh wrote to Govil: “This is about the telephonic call received from your good self and Shri Faiz Ahmad Kidwai, health commissioner, regarding the unwillingness of some of your officials who are asymptomatic to get hospitalised at AIIMS, Bhopal.” Singh recommended such asymptomatic Covid-19 patients be isolated at home.

 Just a day earlier, Chouhan had clearly stated every Covid-19 positive must be hospitalised.

“If senior government officials would defy basic norms of the Covid-19 protocol, what can we expect from common people,” asked a senior doctor of AIIMS Bhopal.

The infected officials don’t have any travel or contact history and the department is yet to locate the source of the infection. According to sources, it is being suspected that the virus spread rapidly as officers were meeting each other for pandemic-related planning.

P Narhari, commissioner (public relations) and member of the CM’s Covid control team, said: “We are trying to know the reasons for the series of infections. We are also tracking people they met in the meantime.’’

Political failure

On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a pandemic. When most states were tightening their belts for a long-drawn battle against the pandemic, Madhya Pradesh was in the midst of a political turmoil. Despite Covid-related warnings, MLAs of the Congress and the BJP were visiting one resort after another in groups, flouting social distancing norms.

 Finally, the BJP toppled the Congress government and Chouhan became chief minister. He took oath on March 23 and a day later Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown from March 25.

 “In February, when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alerted about the possible dan­gers of coronavirus, the BJP was busy toppling an elected gov­ernment and serving the rebel MLAs in Bengaluru,” said for­mer chief minister Kamal Nath.

 “The state government is defunct at this crucial juncture. Chouhan is clueless. In the absence of a health minister, every decision-making is left to him and officers. The state suffered because of their negligence,” said Sachin Shrivastava, a political and social activist. “The government launched seven helpline numbers, but to no help.”

The BJP has an explanation for the current state of affairs. “Appointing a Cabinet is not an easy task; a lot of things have to be considered… Without any distraction, the chief minister is focused on controlling the pandemic situation,” BJP Spokesperson Rajneesh Agarwal said.

The impact of the pandemic is being also felt by the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Activist Rachna Dhingra said: “The state government forcefully converted Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) into a Covid-19 hospital over a fortnight ago, but not a single Covid-19 case has been admitted there. Nearly 350,000 gas victims are dependent on this hospital for treatment. The government did not provide an alternative. The result? Three gas victims who used get treatment at BMHRC died within 15 days.”

 “Gas tragedy survivors have a weak immune system and this puts them at greater risk of contracting Covid-19,” said Dhingra.

 Amid all this, the public relations machinery is functioning at full capacity. “To fight the Covid-19 pandemic, it is necessary to widely publicise all the concerned government actions. All the officers — additional director to assistant information officers — are hereby directed to come to the office regularly,” an order from Madhya Pradesh's directorate of public relations read.

 Criticising the government’s move, Congress leader K K Mishra said: “The publicity-hungry chief minister is risking the lives of state public relations officers… Appearing on newspapers and TV channels will not help combat the pandemic. It asks for a concrete action plan.”

When asked about the government’s preparations and the absence of a Cabinet, Narh­ari said: ‘‘Every public representative is somehow part of this fight. The CM is consistently co­ordinating with MLAs and MPs of the state. Our priority is to control the epidemic.’’

According to Narhari, the government is doing its best to combat the pandemic. ‘‘Instead of the initial five labs, tests are now being conducted at 7 labs. Per day tests have increased from 100 to 1,050 in a couple of days. More than 2,000 ICU beds and over 2.4 million hydroxychloroquine tablets are available in the state,” he added.