Published on May 24, 2021
AHMEDABAD: On May 4, the state had recorded its highest ever active Covid-19 case tally at 1.48 lakh. On Sunday – 19 days later – the active cases got almost halved at 75,134. Analysis of the last fortnight revealed that drop in cases in major districts helped reduce the overall numbers.
Fifteen days back, Ahmedabad and Surat districts had recorded two of the highest active case tally at 61,956 and 14,752 respectively. This accounted for 53% of Gujarat’s total active cases. As of Sunday, both Ahmedabad and Surat had recorded a drop in activity by 60%. Ahmedabad had 22,809 active cases, whereas Surat had 5,647 cases. Vadodara with 8,118 cases had the second highest active cases.
Chhota Udepur with 74% drop in cases topped the tally of highest reduction in cases, followed by 66% in Narmada, 64% in Morbi, 63% in Ahmedabad and 62% in Surat. To put the figure in perspective in the past 15 days Gujarat’s overall active cases reported a drop of 48%. Rajkot and Vadodara districts, with sizable urban population, reported a dip of 45% and 16% respectively – lower than the state average.
On the other hand, out of 33 districts of Gujarat five also recorded an upward trend – in fact, Porbandar nearly doubled its active cases from 306 to 599 in 15 days. Likewise, Amreli and Junagadh recorded 23% and 14.5% rise respectively.
The test positivity rate for Gujarat fell from 8.8% a fortnight ago to 3.7% on Sunday, recording reduction by over 50%.
“The figures primarily indicate the official figures, and don’t include the patients who never went to the medical setting – for example those who have tested positive by rapid antigen testing (RAT), or those who started medication after HRCT reports.
Nonetheless, the on-ground scenario reveals that there are more beds available now across categories and geographies, and there is a fall in RT-PCR demands,” said a city-based public health expert. “But again, the rural areas would decide the future course of pandemic in Gujarat. Reduction in cities was needed but the focus has to shift on increasing testing in rural areas to quickly identify new cases and isolate them.”
Parth Shastri Archive 