Apart from them, around 40 policemen and their familymembers, have also been found infected by the deadly virus,the official said.
"Around 89 personnel of the health department,including four bureaucrats and a few doctors, mostly workingin Bhopal, have tested coronavirus positive," the officialsaid.
The IAS officers and the senior doctors were busy inplanning strategies to combat COVID-19 when they must havecontracted the infection, he added.
According to the official, majority of the healthstaffers must have got infected while treating the patients.
In Barwani, three health department employees havetested positive for the COVID-19, another official said.
A report from Gwalior also said that a nurse hastested positive for coronavirus in the city while treatingCOVID-19 patients.
Additional Director of Madhya Pradesh healthdepartment, Sapna Lovanshi, said that they have not collectedthis kind of data for the entire state so far.
The number of COVID-19 patients in the state reached1,090 on Thursday as the test results have started pouring inat a fast pace, an official said.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer VivekTankha termed the development of a large number of healthdepartment employees testing coronavirus positive as "grossnegligence".
"The majority of persons infected by coronavirus (inBhopal) are from the health department, which is nothing butan outcome of gross negligence of the officers of departmentin following the COVID-19 guidelines," he said.
Tankha also complained to the Madhya Pradesh HumanRights Commission (MPHRC) on the issue and also took strongobjections to the reply given by the Bhopal collector onbehalf of the chief secretary on the issue.
"The chief secretary was given the notice by the MPHRCon the issue and he should have replied to it instead ofdirecting the collector to do so," the senior lawyer said.
Till Thursday morning, the number of coronavirus casesin Madhya Pradesh climbed to 1,090 while 55 persons succumbedto COVID-19 in the state so far, health officials said.
So far, 64 patients have recovered and returned home,they said. MASNP NP