Barely two days after Bhilwara administration declared the district coronavirus-free, a man from Jodhpur who travelled to Bhilwara has tested positive. He is presently under quarantine along with his wife and child.
However, the district with the much appreciated Bhilwara Model of effective containment of the virus and the state government is not keen on letting him be a part of the district data.
The 9 pm report |
On Sunday, the 2 pm report released by the Rajasthan medical and health department stated that there is a new positive case in Bhilwara. This was cause of much speculation as it was just two days ago on April 17 that the district had been declared coronavirus-free.
The 2 pm report |
However, in the 9 pm report the figure was removed and a statement was issued stating that it was a typographical error and a patient from Bharatpur was marked in Bhilwara. The statement read, “In the 2 pm report, there was a typographical error by the SMS staff while reporting. It has been confirmed with IDSP cell and Collector Bhilwara. It was from Bharatpur not Bhilwara. The error has since been corrected.”
But both the reports had the same number of patients i.e. 17 for Bharatpur. Reports then filtered in from local Bharatpur papers that a man from Jodhpur who has travelled to Bhilwara has tested positive. He had travelled on April 14 after taking special permission from the Jodhpur collector. He had been checked at the borders and quarantined at his home. He showed symptoms on Saturday and was admitted to the hospital and tested. His report has apparently been received on Sunday and he has tested positive.
Speaking to The Free Press Journal on this issue Rajendra Bhatt, Bhilwara Collector said, “The man is in hospital. But his report is yet awaited. He had travelled from Jodhpur through special permission of Jodhpur District Collector. His had travelled along with his family. They are under quarantine.”
The success story of Bhilwara is popularly called the Bhilwara Model of Containment and is all set to be replicated in several other states. Ruthless containment was said to be the hallmark of this model. Thus providing special permission to travel to Bhilwara from Jodhpur which is now a Corona hotspot does raise a few questions.
Here out of the 28 persons who tested positive, 24 have been discharged from hospital, 2 had died and 2 patients who had tested on April 4 and April 9 have been tested negative three times. They will be discharged and be under 14 day home quarantine. Bhilwara had been under curfew since March 20 and a Maha Curfew had been imposed from April 3. Hundreds of barricades had been put up all across the city to ensure compete lockdown.
