Vadodara: After peaking in September, the Covid-19 outbreak had provided some relief with cases going down consistently. But the decline now seems to have flattened and the numbers are going down at a snail’s pace.
Covid-19 had peaked in the Vadodara city and district on September 19 when the highest number of cases was registered with 135 persons testing positive. After this a consistent decline was seen and n about a month the number of new cases testing positive on a day went down to below 100 with 99 persons testing positive on October 20.
After October 20, the decrease in the number of cases has been sluggish. On Saturday, 91 new cases were reported in the city and district and on most days before this, the number stayed around 95 new cases a day.
Vadodara Municipal Corporation’s medical officer Dr Devesh Patel said that the case positivity ratio had been constant and did not show a significant decline off late. “With beds remaining vacant, hospitals have stopped using some Covid-19 beds or wards and the total number of beds has reduced from 6,022 to 4,777. We are not denotifying any hospitals to ensure that beds are available if needed in the future,” Patel said.
Patel added that a reason for the number not going down significantly could be people letting down their guard. “The movement of people has increased. Also, many of them believe that they should not worry as most of the cases are asymptomatic,” said Patel.
Former professor and head of the department of community medicine at the Baroda Medical College Dr V S Mazumdar said that one should not rush to conclusions considering figures of positive cases alone. “The situation in hospitals, availability of beds, the situation in OPDs and other factors give a more realistic picture,” he said.
According to Mazumdar the data from hospitals was truly encouraging. “We have the SSG Hospital taking up renovation in some wards as the number of patients went down. Both here at the GMERS Hospital, Gotri, floors where Covid-19 patients were treated are now vacant,” he said.
The professor added that the new cases included both those of city and district. “If one considers only the city, 50 to 60 cases are reported. In a population of about 20lakh this is not alarming,” he said.