Published on March 29, 2020
AHMEDABAD: A 47-year-old man from Ahmedabad, who got admitted with suspected Covid-19 infection on Saturday at Civil Hospital, died on Sunday morning, said Gujarat health & family welfare department officials.
With the death, Gujarat’s death toll in the global epidemic has reached to five, second in India after Maharashtra’s tally of six. It’s also the second death in Gujarat where the person had no travel history abroad or within the country. As on Sunday, the state has recorded one death per 12 positive patients approximately. In comparison, Maharashtra has recorded one death per 30 patients.
Jayanti Ravi, principal secretary (health & family welfare), told media on Sunday morning that the deceased person had been admitted to GCRI in Civil Hospital premises on Saturday and had tested positive. “He had co-morbidity in form of diabetes,” she said. “All three new positive cases are from Ahmedabad. Other two patients include a 34-year-old man with travel history to Mumbai and a 67-year-old woman with no travel history.”
The tally of positive cases in Gujarat include 21 in Ahmedabad, 9 in Vadodara and Gandhinagar each, 8 in Rajkot, 7 in Surat and one each in Bhavnagar, Kutch, Mehsana and Gir Somnath. Out of five deaths recorded in Gujarat so far, three are from Ahmedabad and one each from Surat and Bhavnagar.
Ravi said that three persons from Vadodara are now out of Covid-19 infection. “But they would be put under 14-day isolation according to national norms. Even as the viral load has disappeared, it’s a precautionary measure to ensure no spread of the infection,” she said.
As on Sunday morning, Gujarat has 19,661 persons under quarantine – either at home or at government-run facilities.
Talking about identification of potential cases in door-to-door survey, Ravi said that Gujarat has completed survey of about 5 crore in the state out of which 181 with foreign travel history were found who were showing symptoms associated with Covid-19. “They all have been isolated and their treatment is on,” she said, adding that the pace of survey in rural areas is much faster than the urban areas.
The principal secretary said that the state government has decided not to shift any existing patient in any isolation ward to the newly-formed specialized hospitals in four major cities of Gujarat – Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot – with cumulative capacity of 2,200. “Work on the district-level specialized hospitals for Covid-19 is also going on well with respective collectors and district health officers,” said Ravi.
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