Indore:
A jewellery store in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore – one of the worst hit districts in the state by the novel coronavirus outbreak – has been temporarily closed for cleaning and disinfection after 31 employees tested positive for the highly infectious Covid-19. Health officials have started tracing the customers who visited the store in the last week.
“We have started tracing the infected staff and customers, who would have come in contact with them over the past week. We want to check if any of them has cough, cold or other symptoms of Covid so that we can have them tested,” Chief Medical Officer Dr Pravin Jadia told reporters. The jewellery showroom – Anand Jewels – is being sanitised and will reopen only after fumigation is completed, officials said.
Millions across the country celebrated Diwali and Dhanteras last week and the number of people visiting the markets rose up significantly amid festivity, compared to the last few months. Visuals from Delhi and Mumbai showed people roaming around the streets without masks and violating the government-mandated social distancing norms.
In Madhya Pradesh, over 1.86 lakh people have tested positive for coronavirus so far; over, 1,200 deaths have been reported. Indore, which reported 194 new infections yesterday, is one of the worst-affected districts.
Across India, more than 89.5 lakh people have contracted the virus since the first case was reported from Kerala on January 30. While nearly 83.83 lakh people have recovered so far, over 1.31 lakh Covid-linked deaths have been registered.
India has the second highest number of Covid cases in the world after the United States where 1.15 crore infections have been logged since the begining of the pandemic.