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Gujarat records fourfold jump in cases within nine days: Data
Jaipur: Covid-19 cases and deaths have seen a nearly fourfold increase in Gujarat over the past nine days, health department data showed on Thursday.
Jaipur: Covid-19 cases and deaths have seen a nearly fourfold increase in Gujarat over the past nine days, health department data showed on Thursday.
The rate of recovery as compared to the national average is low in the state, the data showed. The two western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat on Thursday accounted for about 37% of the total close to 22,000 Covid-19 cases in India. Maharastra, with 5,649 confirmed cases and 269 deaths, is the worst affected. Gujarat, until Thursday, had 2,624 positive cases and 112 deaths.
A closer analysis of the data released by the state government between April 14 and April 22 revealed that the number of Covid-19 cases had gone up close to four times. On April 14, 650 cases were reported from the state which increased to 2,624 on April 23. In this period, Covid deaths increased by four times. On April 14, 28 deaths were reported. On April 22, the number went to 112.
The recovery rate in the state of Gujarat has been low. As against the national recovery rate of 19%, Gujarat’s rate has been 6.3%. However, according to state government officials, the reason for the poor recovery rate was that reporting of coronavirus cases in the state was late, so the number of patients recovering would gradually begin to register.
“Between March 20 and April 14, that is in 35 days, only 650 people were found positive in the state. In past few days, 1,800 cases have been reported which means the numbers have increased many times. But the state has shown that from a five-year-old kid to a 45-year-old man have turned from positive to negative. We are sure that numbers of patients recovering would also increase in the coming days,” said a top official of the state government, who did not wished to be named in this report.
The data also revealed that 47% of persons, who died due to coronavirus, in Gujarat were more than 60 years old, officials said.
Jayanti Ravi, principal secretary health, said most of the deceased were elderly people and were suffering from other serious diseases too.
“The age of 47% of the deceased is more than 60, 41% victims are between the age group of 40 years and 60 years, 10% are between the age group of 20 years and 40 years old and 2% are between one and 20 years old,” Ravi said. She added that many of the deceased were suffering from diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer and kidney-related ailments.
The top five districts affected with Covid-19 in Gujarat are Ahmedabad (1,602 cases), Surat (456), Vadodra (215), Rajkot (41) and Bhavngar (33). The highest number of deaths has been reported from Ahmedabad (62), Surat (12), Vadodra (10), Bhavnagar (5) and the rest are from other districts.
The localities in Ahmedabad that have emerged as Covid-19 hot spots are Jamalpur, Berhampur, Khadia, Dariyapur, Danilimdi and Shahpur. Similarly, the localities in Surat, from where the highest number of cases have been reported are Limbayat, Surat Centre, Varacha A, Udhna, Rander, Athwa Gate, Katargam, Lal Darwaja and Varacha B.
Meanwhile, Gujarat police on Wednesday registered two cases for misusing curfew passes to smuggle liquor into the dry state.
“One case has been registered for misuse of letter of Haryana district magistrate for transport of sanitizer in Balasinor taluka of Mahisagar district. Liquor worth Rs 11.40 lakh was found instead of sanitizer. Another case was registered for misuse of letter of Punjab district magistrate for transport of vegetables on Ahmedabad-Vadodara Express Highway. Liquor worth Rs 16.80 lakh was seized by the state monitoring cell,” said Shivanand Jha, director general of police, Gujarat.
