Cases surfacing beyond red zones

Prashant Rupera | TNN | Apr 14, 2020, 04:08 IST

A woman from Karelibaug tested positive on Monday morning

Vadodara: In a month’s time, Vadodara has emerged as Gujarat’s second city after Ahmedabad to cross the three-figure mark with COVID-19 cases spiralling at an alarming rate. The authorities are now keeping their fingers crossed hoping that the virus does not geographically spread to other localities of the city.
After initial detection of sporadic positive cases from Makarpura, Nizampura and Tandalja Road, the city witnessed a spurt of cases from Nagarwada-Saiyedpura area, which was declared red zone on April 5.
In fact, of the 108 positive cases that the city had recorded by Monday evening, 93 are from this densely populated stretch.
But since last couple of days, cases are also surfacing from localities beyond the two areas – Nagarwada-Saiyedpura and Tandalja – which the officials have declared as cluster quarantine zones or red zones of the city.
Three cases have already emerged from Bahar Colony on Ajwa Road. On Sunday night, a 40-year-old woman of Karelibaug tested positive while a 56-year-old man from Kothi Pol near Raopura Tower tested positive on Monday morning.
Even as movement of Karelibaug resident is being traced, sources said the female had visited a private hospital in the area where Bhargav Patni, the 27-year-old patient, who passed away on Sunday, was hospitalized for another medical condition before he tested positive of COVID-19.
Patni, a resident of Navrang Road in Nagarwada area, was hospitalized in connection to dengue at the private hospital which was visited by Karelibaug resident.
The movement of Raopura resident is still a mystery. But considering that the narrow lanes of the old city are closely connected to each other, officials are not ruling out the possibility of the elderly man getting infected due to local transmission.
Meanwhile, Patni’s 47-year-old mother became the fourth member of Nagarwada family to test positive. The victim’s father and uncle are already under treatment. Vadodara district collector Shalini Agrawal said apart from Nagarwada, sampling is also being carried out in areas surrounding Jubileebaug and Raopura. Results of samples collected from Tandalja and Mogalwada so far have tested negative.