Ahmedabad crosses 1,500 Covid-19 patient deaths

AHMEDABAD: It took 103 days from the first recorded death in the city on March 26 for the district to record 1,500 cumulative deaths. With the addition of deaths of five Covid-19 patients on Wednesday, Ahmedabad became the third major district to cross the 1,500-deaths mark after Mumbai (5,064) and Delhi (3,213). Chennai is on the fourth worst spot with 1,143 deaths so far.
However, the district’s importance in curbing Covid-19 in Gujarat can be seen from the fact that the district accounts for 75% of Covid-related deaths in the state, while Mumbai accounts for 53.6% of Covid deaths in Maharashtra and Chennai accounts for 67.2% deaths in Tamil Nadu.

Ahmedabad district’s death rate is 6.7% which is higher than Mumbai’s 5.8%, Delhi’s 3% and Chennai’s 1.6%.
However, on the silver lining, the number of daily deaths and death rate are on decline in the district since mid-June. In the first eight days of July, the district recorded 60 deaths at the mortality rate of 4% with double digit number only on July 3, reaching 10 deaths. In fact, the last 100 deaths were recorded in 11 days compared to five days in beginning of June. “The number of deaths in Ahmedabad have significantly gone down in the past few weeks due to better management through OPD clinics of co-morbidities, which otherwise rendered patients highly vulnerable to Covid complications,,” said ACS Dr Rajiv Gupta, in-charge of Covid-19 control in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Dr Maharshi Desai, a member of the state government-appointed panel on Covid-19, said that compared to April-May, the doctors are more confident in treating patients with improved protocols and availability of drugs.