Vadodara city’s positive cases spike to 10

TNN | Updated: Apr 6, 2020, 11:34 IST

Nagarwada area in Vadodara was quarantined as 9 tested positive

VADODARA: Vadodara recorded its 10th COVID-19 patient with a 54-year-old male from Nagarwada area of the city testing positive for the deadly virus on Sunday morning.
The patient was admitted in the isolation ward of state-run SSG Hospital on Saturday.
As the report of this patient testing positive arrived, it raised an alarm in the congested, densely populated bylanes of the old city.
Parts of Nagarwada and Machhipith were put under mass quarantine in the wake of this first positive case from the area. The area has around 650 houses and a population of 3,200 people.
Senior IAS officer Vinod Rao, special secretary for central Gujarat to handle Covid-19 matters, said each and every person in the area will be examined as a part of a mass health surveillance drive.
The reason for taking the drastic step was that the man had fever since last four days. During this period and even before that he had come in contact with several persons. It also came to light that the man was involved in social work at SSG Hospital and used to provide food to the needy there. Some persons working in the hospital used to take meals from the same service.
Sources, however, said those serving food had not been allowed inside the hospital soon after the first positive case was admitted there. After this, the group used to stand outside the hospital and provide food from there.
The patient also suffers from heart-related ailments and hypertension. With the latest case, the city has recorded 10 cases of which one person has died, five have been discharged while four are under treatment.
Gotri hospital to act as COVID-19 hospital
The GMERS Medical College and Hospital in Gotri will act as COVID-19 hospital. All the COVID-19 positive cases of central Gujarat will be referred to Gotri hospital, chief district health officer Dr Uday Tilawat said.
So far, state-run SSG Hospital was handling maximum COVID-19 suspected and positive cases in the city.
“Screening and testing of samples will continue at our hospital. All the positive cases will be treated at Gotri hospital,” said Dr Rajeev Daveshwar, medical superintendent of SSG Hospital.