Chief Minister Vijay Rupani accompanied by Deputy CM Nitin Patel and state BJP president CR Paatil in Surat on Sunday. (Photo by Hanif Malek)

THE recovery rate in Surat has gone up in one month from 60 per cent to 70 per cent, while growth rate of positive cases in Surat reduced from 4 per cent to 2 per cent, said Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Surat on Sunday, even as the district reported 237 cases and 12 deaths. The total number of cases in Surat reached 13,568 with 436 fatalities.

Gujarat reported 1,101 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday taking the total tally to 63,852. Also, 22 deaths were reported from the state. The toll reached 2,507.

The cities of Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Vadodara too reported two deaths each, while Devbhumi Dwarka, Patan, Rajkot and Gandhinagar city recorded one death each. Ahmedabad recorded 155 new cases on Sunday taking the total number of cases to 26,818 and 1,603 deaths.

Rupani was in Surat on Sunday, his birthday, accompanied by Deputy CM Nitin Patel, to take stock of the situation. Rupani and Patel were accompanied by newly appointed State BJP president C R Paatil.

“Earlier Gujarat was just behind Maharashtra in terms of positive cases, but now it has dropped to 12th position. Earlier the death rate was 7 per cent and today it is 3.5 per cent. This shows that our state has done excellent work in controlling the spread. WHO and the Supreme Court have also appreciated our initiatives like Dhanvantri Rath. Indian institute of Management Ahmedabad’s survey report also lauded the state. Gujarat worked on two points — to create awareness to follow guidelines of Covid and immediate and timely treatment and recovery segment,” Rupani said.

The CM held meeting with the deans and nodal officers and staffers handling Covid-19 cases in New Civil Hospital and SMIMER hospital.

“This is my second visit to Surat in almost a month. We have been successful in controlling the infection here and succeeded in bringing the situation under control. When we last visited Surat (on July 4), 130 tests per million was being conducted here, which has increased to 1,200 per million tests,” he said.

“In Gujarat, we are doing 26,000 tests a day as compared to around 5,000 earlier. We are going ahead by increasing the number of tests. Recovery rate in Surat rose from 60 per cent to 70 per cent,” he told reporters here.

“We have also deployed 121 Dhanvatri Raths where daily on an average 300 people are checked. We have sent 600 ventilators to Surat. The government has also provided 128 ventilators to private hospitals for the treatment of coronavirus, the first in the state, and there is so far no more demand for Tocilizumab and Ramdesivir medicines among patients as all the demands have been met,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation registered a police complaint against a Maninagar couple for violating home quarantine guidelines. “Taking serious note of the violation, police complaint against Nilamben and Manishbhai Gaikwad for violating home quarantine guideline has been filed under Section 3 of The Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and Section 51 (B) of The Disaster Management Act,” the AMC stated in an official statement.

On July 28, Nilamben and her husband Manisbhai Gaikwad were tested at a Dhanvantri Rath. Following this, they were advised home quarantine for 14 days. On July 31, when the AMC health team visited their house for a follow-up, it found their house locked. They could not be contacted the same day, however, when the AMC health South zone deputy health officer was able to contact them on August 1, he was informed that the couple had left for Pune late night on July 28 by a private vehicle violating AMC home quarantine guidelines and without due approval and exposing others to infection too. Manishbhai works as a driver, while Nilamben works at a private hospital.

New containment areas in Ahmedabad

Out of 248 total micro containment areas in Ahmedabad city, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) removed nine areas and added another seven. Thus, the total micro containment areas in Ahmedabad stand at 246. The new micro containment areas declared by the AMC on Sunday are in Khokhra, Bhaipura, Jivraj Park, Bopal and Vejalpur.