‘8 lakh Covid-19 cases in Ahmedabad, 1.6 lakh in Surat likely by May-end’

TNN | Apr 25, 2020, 06:23 IST

Vijay Nehra, Ahmedabad municipal commissioner

AHMEDABAD: On the day the Union home ministry said that Covid-19 situation is serious in Ahmedabad and Surat, the civic chiefs of the cities gave grim forecasts if cases continued to rise unabated. While Vijay Nehra, Ahmedabad municipal commissioner, mentioned a figure of eight lakh cases by the end of May, Banchhanidhi Pani quoted projection of 1.64 lakh in Surat.
Both the figures were based on current projections of case doubling rate (CDR) which essentially describes the time in which Covid-19 cases doubled in a particular city. The municipal commissioners underscored the need for citizens to cooperate to reduce the current CDR.
“Ahmedabad had 600 cases on April 17, which on April 20, rose to 1,200. The case doubling rate is reduced from three days to four now,” said Nehra.“At the current rate, we can reach to eight lakh cases by May 31. With good cooperation from citizens, we can achieve CDR of 10 days. Whether we want 25,000 cases by end of May or 8 lakh depends on cooperation of the citizens.”
‘Not maintaining social distancing spurred spike’
Pani said on Friday that Surat could have 1.64 lakh cases of Covid-19 positives doubled every three days. “Not maintaining social distancing is the biggest reason for the spike in cases. We are making fervent appeals asking people to stay indoors and wear masks,” he said while appealing for the citizens’ help to arrest the Covid-19 growth rate. Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani in an address on Friday evening said that the state is equipped to tackle COVID-19 scenario with adequate infrastructure and medicines. The CM mentioned that incident at Nizamuddin, Delhi, resulted in spike in cases in Gujarat and India. “These are extraordinary times and we would need everyone’s support to tide over it,” he said.