Thread by @nisheethsharan

#IndoresCoronaStory is a prequel to news of soaring numbers, high morbidity & a contagion spiralling out of control.
From priding itself as the cleanest city in India 3 times in a row, Indore has been brought to its knees by #Corona
This is the back story of how it happened.
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https://twitter.com/nisheethsharan/status/1256982143709806592

Don’t ask me for proofs etc. Mightiest of govts have NOT been able to provide evidence of Corona originating in China yet.
This is the theory that emerged out of discussions with people who are dealing with it.
Spare me silly questions too, google them.
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On March 5th, as I boarded an Indigo flight from Delhi to Indore and proceeded to 2F, the rumblings of #Corona had already started in India. Having spent a day with a dear friend whose son had just come back from Hong Kong as his university had declared…
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an indefinite lockdown. As I moved in I was engulfed in a sea of skullcaps & burkhas all around me. Seems like a group on a wedding trip was my first thought. I must have been among 3/4 passengers in the first 7-8 rows which was not a part of the group.
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As we took off loud & intrusive chatter began about their experience in Umrah. Out popped jars of Khajur and over-the-head-across-the-isle sharing began. Over next 60 mins, I could make out that a part of the group was visiting Indore for the first time.
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Offers to take'em to masjids, hotels, sermons, logistics kept being debated. As we landed, some silently palmed up and prayed. I was eager to get out of the crammed space. It never occurred to me that I was probably in a flying hotspot of Corona.
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There was chaos at the luggage carrousel with the group. Bigger surprise awaited at the pick up point. Around 200 people were present to receive them.
As I waited for my driver to pick me up, there was a swarm of greeting as the reception party…
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...out did itself in kissing the hands of the Umrah returnee. I later learned that kissing hands of people coming back from Umrah is a tradition of reflected blessings. There was no screening of passengers on the domestic flights.
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Apparently there was none for the international flights from Jeddah too. Those who had to enforce the quarantine were as ill informed and ill equipped as the lay travellers. As we drove back I asked my driver if he had heard about Corona.
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He was keen about Cong MLAs in Gurgaon & imagined I had something to do with it. He had seen nothing in the city to warn him of the pandemic. We cheerily drove in without realising that over 300 pilgrims had returned from Middle East without checks.
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Cut back to 3 months.
Like the rest of India, all though December, Indore too was undergoing its share of CAA protests. Across the city, specially in minority ghettos, daily protest rallies and speeches in the evening marked the schedule.
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To keep interest alive & I suspect with patronage, fiery speaker groups were moving from city to city addressing crowds and kindling passion.
ASP Parashar, incharge of Badwali Chowki tried to break the crowd, even using Lathi Charge to dispel them.
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He was transferred overnight to placate the minority. TI Devendra Raghuvanshi, who succumbed to Corona was also infected during the CAA protests and showed first symptoms during early March. Without sufficient Corona awareness he could not get early care.
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On Feb 8th, BJP’s Councillor Usman Patel resigned from the party protesting against CAA and made headlines. Such was the outrage that crowds would build up all ghettos in the evenings to listen to speeches, shayari and provocation.
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1st case of Corona in India was detected on Jan30 & its news was usurped by AAP win in Delhi on Feb12. The community was jubilant at the humiliation of BJP & the fervour was brimming over. They saw it as a display of their communal strength.
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Then #DelhiRiots began. The primed up community shifted gears to be doubly defiant. At meetings Taqreers to fight back were belted out. As the pot bubbled over, a distressed Cong. Govt was busy trying to manage the political crisis that had hit them.
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Focus was on managing majority, not #Corona. Rampant transfers sent the officialdom into atrophy. Govt worked at erasing its tracks, pushing through IIFA and retaining its flock. #Corona was left to be attended on the back burner.
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Between Feb to March, Corona had invaded Indore. Initial carriers are thought to be Umrah travellers, CAA speakers and travelling Community leaders apart from a minuscule number of foreign travellers and TJs. The primary source is indicated to have come…
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... from Umrah, some who travelled directly & some via Delhi/Mumbai. The Umrah infected were embraced & their hands kissed, hosted-felicitated in the community. One can imagine the contagion as the early super spreaders dispersed into the society there…
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...were hardly any checks the govt had enacted. The seriousness of #Corona just hadn't hit home. The asymtomatic patients kept spreading the virus blissfully unaware of the death warrants they were delivering. Ignorance had married defiance.
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Religious rituals of the faithfuls from all communities compounded the contagion. While masjid’s continued to operate, even temples had evening crowds. Early indication of Jain community being infected appears to have been a result of this.
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On Mar 23 as PM Modi asked for a day of lockdown to appreciate Corona Warriors without sufficient briefing, large crowds gathered across the city. They saw it as a celebration and Rajwada, was flooded with people going berserk banging utensils & enjoying
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Even when a nationwide lockdown was announced on Mar 24th, Indore DM Lokesh Jatav allowed a 7am to 2pm opening of movement and shops, though malls and large public places were closed. All the while the #Corona time bomb kept ticking.
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On Mar 24 nation wide #lockdown ensured that people woke up to their plight. With Shivraj Singh taking over as CM without any cabinet to assist him and a bureaucracy full of Kamalnath appointees it was the proverbial change of tyres in a running vehicle.
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From Mar 25 - 29 Indore was left to the casual approach of an uncaring bureaucrat. The early signs of eruption began. Patients started filling up.
With each patient came 8-10 attendants that flooded the hospitals threatening to turn them into hotspots.
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It was only by March 25th that the message hit home: Indore was in serious trouble. Precious 3-4 weeks had been lost to lackadaisical govt. Magnitude of the threat demanded administrative change. Cm @chouhanshivraj stepped into the breach.
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On Mar 28, Shivraj appointed Manish Singh as the DM & HN Mishra as DIG. A hard taskmaster with unparalleled support of the city for his great work on Clean Indore drive.
Thus started the building of capacities, gearing up of the city to handle Corona.
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Masks, PPE Kits, testing facilities had to be sourced on war footing. Essential supply chain had to be put in place. Such was the urgency that Adm coaxed a city businessman to donate a testing machine just to save the time on govt procurement procedures.
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This is when serious efforts went in to screen, test & quarantine. Hotspots were fenced out with sanitisation of public places & localities.
To escape strict quarantine, ghettos like Bombay Bazar, Tatpatti Bakhal, Khajrana started to hide the infected
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Even symptomatic patients were not declared. Dainik Bhaskar reported of cases where community doctors served the infected in homes with ventilators/ medicines sourced from the black market further multiplying the contagion.
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Cases would reach Corona facilities only in last stages when the community doctors gave up. This spiked death rates. Limited testing facilities would continue to pile up tests and deliver in a bunch with inflection points on the days the reports came in.
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From 1-20 April, Indore realised the level of infections in its areas. With strict sealing of hotspots and enforced Lockdown, Indore is finally managing to flatten the curve.
It is suspected that the leftover infected in hotspots are drying out now.
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The numbers are beginning to go down. Hopefully, with strict management Indore will be able to recover from a Corona which was foisted over it by a community high on its defiance. And an apathetic govt which ignored the early warnings from Feb-March.
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Nobody knew how to deal with a pandemic.
Thats not important now. How many people cared to contain it early should be the pertinent question.
Now, we regularly see how govt decisions can impact lives. Literally
Elect those who are concerned is my learning.
#IndoresCoronaStory 🙏