Gujarat COVID-19 cases up by 367 to 1743; death toll 63

Ahmedabad, Apr 19 (PTI) Gujarat on Sunday reported the highest single-day spike of 367 in COVID-19 cases, with Ahmedabad alone accounting for 239 new detections, a Health department official said.

With this, the number of the infected people in the state shot up to 1743, while the death toll rose by 10 to 63.

On Saturday, 280 new cases were reported with 12 deaths.

With 239 new cases and seven deaths, the tally of COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad district now stands at 1,101 and the number of the victims at 32, the official said.

At the same time, 12 more patients were discharged after recovering from COVID-19 disease, taking their number to 105.

“Gujarat tested 3002 samples in the last 24 hours, of which 367 returned positive. So far, the state tested a total of 29,104 samples,” said Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi.

Of the ten deaths on Sunday, seven were reported from Ahmedabad alone, she said, adding that Surat, Bharuch and Anand each reported one death.

All but one of the ten deceased suffered from comorbidities like hypertension, asthma, diabetes and kidney failure among others.

Of the 63 deaths so far, Ahmedabad tops the chart with 32, followed by Surat (8), Vadodara (7), Bhavnagar (4).

Gandhinagar, Anand and Panchmahals each have reported two deaths so far while Bharuch, Patan, Kutch, Botad, Jamnagar and Arravali reported one death each.

While Ahmedabad recorded 239 new cases, Surat’s tally went up by 89 patients to 242.

Vadodara reported 14 new cases, taking the number of COVID-19 people to 180.

Rajkot, Mahisagar, Bharuch, Dahod, Narmada, and Mahisagar districts also reported new cases on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra attributed the surge in COVID-19 cases in the city to “pro-active intensive surveillance and aggressive testing”.

While Rajkot has so far reported 36 cases, Bhavnagar 32, Anand 28, Bharuch 23, Gandhinagar 17, Patan 15, Narnada 12, Banaskantha 10, Panchmahal 9, Chhota Udepur 7, Mehsana and Botad five each, Kutch 4, Porbandar and Dahod three each, Gir Somnath, Mahisagar, Kheda and Sabarkantha two each, and Jamnagar, Morbi, and Aravalli one each.

Of the total 1743 COVID-19 cases, 1646 are “active” patients. While 14 patients are on ventilator support, the condition of the rest is stable, Ravi said