Bhopal, Apr 13 () Madhya Pradesh on Monday reported43 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of the affectedpeople in the state to 615, Health department officials said.
At the same time, six more deaths were reported fromIndore, Bhopal, Ujjain and Khargone, taking the overall tollto 50 so far.
During the last 24-hours, Indore reported three deathsdue to COVID-19 followed by Bhopal, Ujjain and Khargone eachreporting one death, officials said.
All of them tested positive for the novel coronavirusinfection after their deaths, officials said.
Meanwhile, the number of IAS officials from the stateHealth department to test positive for the viral infectionrose to four on Monday with one more bureaucrat testingpositive, they added.
Madhya Pradesh has so far tested more than 10,000samples, said Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare,Mohammad Suleiman.
Out of the total affected persons, 80 per cent casesare from Indore and Bhopal, which suggests that the viraloutbreak remains confined to these two cities.
"We are conducting up to 1050 tests per day and wehave decided to ramp up this capacity to 7000 per day. We aretrying to rope in private medical colleges and also tappingother facilities in the state to achieve this target,"Suleiman said.
He said a total of 1400 samples have been sent fortesting to Delhi in a state government plane with the twinobjective of expediting the process and clearing the backlog.
Meanwhile, Indore continues to lead the chart onMonday as well with 22 new cases being detected in the last 24hours, taking the COVID-19 case tally in the state'scommercial hub to 328.
Bhopal has reported three new cases, taking theoverall number of the affected people to 142, an officialsaid.
Of the total 50 COVID-19 deaths in Madhya Pradesh,Indore alone accounts for 35 deaths, he said.
Among other cities, Ujjain has so far reported sixdeaths, followed by four in Bhopal, three in Khargone, and oneeach in Chhindwara and Dewas.
According to officials, the virus has now expanded itsfootprint to 23 out of the total 52 districts in the state.
Apart from Indore and Bhopal, Morena district hasrecorded 14 cases, Jabalpur 10 (with one new case), Ujjain 24(with 8 new cases), Hoshangabad 15, Khargone 17 (with threenew cases), Barwani 14, Raisen 4 (with three new cases)Gwalior 6, Khandwa 5, Dewas 4, Sheopur 3 (with one new case)Vidisha 13, Chhindwara 4 (with two new cases) Satna, Dhar(with one new case) and Shivpuri two. Betul, Shajapur, Sagar,Mandsaur and Ratlam have reported one case each.
One of the patients under treatment hailed fromanother state.
So far 51 patients have recovered from COVID-19 andreturned home, the officials said. MAS ADU HWP GKNSK NSK