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Covid-19 status check in hotspots Ahmedabad and Surat show spike a day after hard lockdown
An official said the situation in Ahmedabad worsened due to laxity in implementing lockdown and tracing of positive cases initially.
A day after a hard lockdown was announced in Ahmedabad, the coronavirus epicentre of Gujarat registered 275 new coronavirus cases out of a total of 388 registered in the whole state.
The total number of positive cases in the state has reached 7,013 on Thursday, a senior health official quoted by PTI said.
Ahmedabad also accounted for 23 fatalities out of a total of 29 registered in the state in the last 24 hours followed by four in Surat, the second-worst affected city, which will also slip into a partial hard-lockdown mode beginning Saturday.
A complete lockdown beginning Wednesday midnight was announced in Ahmedabad city, which accounts for more than 70% of total cases (7013) and deaths (over 400).
Everything has been shut down in Ahmedabad except ATMs and health facilities. Administration has also banned all shops except those selling milk and medicines. Nodal officers have been appointed for each zone to ensure home delivery of essential goods.
Since March 19, when the first case was reported from the state, an analysis of Gujarat’s official Covid data reveals that the rate of spread has increased in the state after it touch the 4,000-mark. The data also shows that the mortality rate has steadily increased from 3.7% (when the state had just 1000 cases) to 4.3% (at 4000 cases) to 5.9% (at over 6,000 cases).
One of the officials in the new team that has taken the charge for Ahmedabad said that the lockdown was not enforced properly and initially, there was laxity in identifying persons infected with the virus.
“In the first week to ten days, only those who visited hospital with Covid symptoms were tested. No random testing was done,” he said.
Another official of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation said the government reacted only when the cases were reported from localities outside the walled city. It was found that many residents from the walled city areas were allowed to move around in Ahmedabad resulting in the spread of the virus.
Several of the super-spreaders in the city were vegetable vendors and workers in grocery stores. Gujarat chief minister, Vijay Rupani in an interview to HT had attributed the high number of cases to large number of international and domestic travellers. He also said that Tablighi Jamaat members were not traced in time upon their return from Delhi Markaz resulting in the spread of the disease.
The HT Guide to Coronavirus Covid-19
Experts, however, say that the cases increased because of initial laxity and failure to enforce lockdown seriously.
While the shutdown of Ahmedabad is likely to show results after some days, the administration announced shutting down of all shops selling vegetables and fruits in Surat as well from May 9 to May 14, said PTI.
Surat municipal commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani said that such a step was necessary to contain the spread of the disease as large crowds were gathering at vegetable shops without respecting physical distancing norms.
