Adding to the soaring death toll due to COVID-19 in the hotspot of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, a 62-year-old doctor succumbed to the dreaded infection in the wee hours on Thursday. Dr Shatrughan Panjwani, a resident of Rupram Nagar, was a physician and private practitioner.
Though he was not involved in treating COVID-19 patients, his death is probably the first of a doctor in the country due to the infection, sources said. Chief medical and health officer Dr Praveen Jadiya confirmed to THE WEEK that Dr Panjwani was not involved in the treatment of coronavirus patients.
The death of Dr Panjawani has risen the toll of COVID-19 deaths in Indore to 22 and that of Madhya Pradesh to 33, as another death of a positive patient from Dewas was reported. As of now, the total number of positive cases in the state stands at 403, of which 213 are from Indore. Bhopal has 94 positive cases.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his predecessor Kamal Nath, both on Thursday, tweeted to pay tributes to Dr Panjwani following his death.
18 districts of MP have COVID-19 cases now
Meanwhile, the area of infection is constantly growing in Madhya Pradesh with five more districts coming in its grip and reporting cases in the past two days. Earlier, 13 districts of the state had reported positive cases. Now, the districts of Dewas, Khandwa, Hoshangabad, Raisen and Ratlam have also been added to the list.
Apart from the hotspots Indore and Bhopal, Ujjain has 15 cases, Morena has 13, Khargone and Barwani have 12 each, while Gwalior and Jabalpur have eight cases each. Itarsi in Hoshangabad district reported six cases at once on Wednesday.
CM Chouhan has directed complete sealing of the most-affected districts of Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain. He has also directed sealing of the affected areas in other districts.