Gujarat adds record 55 cases in 12 hours, 50 from Ahmedabad hotspots alone; state tally at 241

Parth Shastri | TNN | Apr 9, 2020, 11:55 IST

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AHMEDABAD: Gujarat in a matter of 12 hours added record 55 cases – 23% of the total registered cases so far – propelled by 50 cases from Ahmedabad city alone. The state has so far registered 241 positive Covid-19 patients.
Ahmedabad also recorded death of a 47-year-old patient at SVP Hospital, taking total death toll of Gujarat to 17. The man had co-morbidity in form of hypertension, said state health department officials.
Jayanti Ravi, principal secretary (health & family welfare), said on Thursday morning that out of 55 new cases, 50 are from Ahmedabad, two from Surat and one each from Anand, Dahod and Chhota Udepur.
“I want to assure you that the figures are not alarming. It’s result of the intensive cluster containment strategy and increasing testing in these areas manifold. Majority of these cases are from the identified clusters such as Danilimda, Astodia and Ghodasar,” said Ravi, adding that a large number of positive cases on Thursday have direct or indirect link with Markaz at Nizamuddin.
As part of the containment strategy in Ahmedabad, the entire walled city area has been isolated as the special focus is on eight identified hotspots with high concentration of positive cases. From Monday onwards, several teams of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) have started door-to-door survey to identify potential Covid-19 patients.
Gujarat would have to wait a little longer for the rapid antibody testing (RAT) kits, said the principal secretary. “We expect 3000-4000 kits in the first batch to arrive on Friday evening or Saturday morning. Testing would be intensified further with the kits,” she said.
As on Thursday morning, Gujarat has carried out 5,760 tests out of which 241 are positive and 5,417 are negative. Result for 102 samples is pending. Out of the total, 1,788 tests were processed in a matter of past 24 hours, said health department officials.
With the new cases, Ahmedabad district now has recorded 133 positive cases, Surat 25, Vadodara 18, Bhavnagar 18, Gandhinagar 13, Rajkot 11, Patan 5, Porbandar 3, Kutch 2, Mehsana 2, Gir Somnath 2, Chhota Udepur 2, Anand 2, Panchmahal 1, Jamnagar 1, Morbi 1, Sabarkantha 1 and Dahod 1.
Likewise, district-wise death figures include 6 from Ahmedabad, 4 from Surat, 2 each from Vadodara and Bhavnagar and one each from Panchmahal, Patan and Jamnagar.
As on Thursday morning, out of 241 cases in Gujarat, 17 are dead, 26 are discharged, 43 are under quarantine and 153 are stable. Two of the patients are on ventilator and are termed critical.