Gujarat’s COVID-19 curve continues to see a sharp rise with 391 new infections and 34 deaths occurring on Sunday, increasing the State’s cumulative figures to 11,380 and 659 respectively.
Gujarat has the second largest number of fatalities after Maharashtra. The State’s mortality rate is above 5.5%, which is substantially higher than the national average COVID-19 mortality rate.
Ahmedabad remains the main cluster with 31 deaths and 276 cases reported on Sunday. The city’s tally for both cases and fatalities has climbed — to 8,420 cases and 524 deaths.
Meanwhile, the State government on Sunday shunted out Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra and brought in senior IAS officer Mukesh Kumar, who has earlier served as the civic body’s chief.
Mr. Nehra’s transfer amidst the pandemic suggests that the State administration’s top priority remains Ahmedabad, where the pandemic has already claimed 524 lives.
Earlier, the State government had appointed senior IAS officer Dr. Rajiv Kumar Gupta as Special Officer to supervise and guide the municipal corporation in its efforts to combat the epidemic, which has penetrated congested low income areas where maintaining social distancing is a tough challenge.
Ahmedabad remains the top priority because the city accounts for more than 70% of the total cases recorded and more than 75% of the total deaths caused by COVID-19.
As of Sunday, there were 5,236 active cases in the city.
At the State level, 6,184 patients are receiving treatment, while 38 others are critically infected and surviving on ventilator support.
Other than Ahmedabad, Surat is also a challenging cluster. Death toll in the diamond city climbed to 51 on Sunday, while the total number of cases jumped to 1,094.
Other deaths have been reported from Vadodara (32), Anand and Bhavnagar (8 each), Gandhinagar and Panchmahal (6 each).