Ahmedabad municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra on Tuesday announced he was self isolating after coming in contact with two positive patients during field visits. The development comes a day after Ahmedabad recorded the highest number of positive cases and deaths in a single day and coincided with a worried state government deciding to rope in the services of private health experts to bring down the mortality rate in the city, which is much higher than the national average.
“I came into contact with two persons during my field visits, who tested positive subsequently As per existing guidelines, I have been advised self-isolation at home for 14 days. Looking forward to rejoining the FightAgainst Coved 19 very soon,” tweeted Vijay Nehra.
A record 26 people succumbed to the Covid-19 disease in hotspot Ahmedabad on Monday and 259 new coronavirus positive cases were recorded in Gujarat’s biggest city. Ahmedabad had reported 23 Covid-19 casualties on Sunday and 20 fatalities on Saturday.
Ahmedabad has so far reported 4,076 coronavirus cases and 234 deaths, said news agency PTI. The city’s Covid-19 death rate stands at 5.8 per cent as on Tuesday, against the national average of around 3.2 per cent.
A worried Gujarat government on Tuesday decided to rope in private intensive care specialists to advise the government doctors in Ahmedabad civil hospital for containment of Covid-19 death rate in the city.
“We have decided to rope in private critical care specialists, who have agreed to give their special service in the wake of the pandemic. On Monday, we had a meeting of our Ahmedabad civil hospital team with some of these specialists,” said state principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi said.
{{/usCountry}}“We have decided to rope in private critical care specialists, who have agreed to give their special service in the wake of the pandemic. On Monday, we had a meeting of our Ahmedabad civil hospital team with some of these specialists,” said state principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi said.
{{/usCountry}}Ahmedabad has reported a staggering 73.3 per cent of the total 319 deaths in Gujarat so far.
Vijay Nehra had said last week that the high death rate in Ahmedabad was because people were reporting late for admission in hospitals and more lives could be saved if people visited hospitals immediately after showing symptoms for the disease.
He said that the corporation had focusing on potential super spreaders and people like vegetable vendors and shopkeepers, who he said were more likely to spread the disease at a faster clip.
Nehra had pointed out the silver lining among the dark clouds and said that the doubling rate of the disease in the city had increased to eight days by April 27-28 from 3-4 days between April 15-20.
“We would be getting 2,000 cases per day with a four-day doubling rate and 1000 cases a day with a eight-day doubling rate. It is, however, getting stabilised. Our health system is ready to handle the cases we are getting now, and a large number of people are also getting discharged,” Nehra was quoted as saying by PTI.
The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19