Gujarat: 530 new coronavirus cases – highest in single day

Of the 33 districts, Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara have a very high test positivity rate, especially in Ahmedabad, where it exceeds 15%. The district till date has conducted 1.07 lakh tests of the total 2.91 lakh tests across the state, which is more than one-third.

Ahmedabad has reported 700 deaths per 10,000 clinically confirmed Covid patients. Its discharge rate at 69.6%, despite the relaxed norms of discharge in accordance with central health ministry guidelines, is second only to Surat where more than 71% of the patients have been discharged.

Vadodara has conducted more than 14,500 tests till date and reported a test positivity rate of 11%. Vadodara on Tuesday reported 41 cases, taking its tally to 1,651.

However, Gandhinagar and Mehsana, show a different trend. In capital city Gandhinagar, where only about 7,000 samples have been tested, the test positivity rate is a little less than seven per cent. Gandhinagar’s total crossed 500 cases on Tuesday, more than 330 of those reported in the last 30 days. In Bhavnagar, where more than 7,000 samples were also taken, test positivity rate is just 2.2%. However, Bhavnagar’s case fatality rate remains high at nearly 7.69 %, after reporting 13 deaths of total 168 patients who tested positive.

In Mehsana, every seventh person among 100 tested, turned out to be Covid-19 positive. While with 10 of the 187 total patients succumbing to the infection, the district’s case fatality rate stands at 5.35 per cent, which is otherwise lower than the state average case fatality rate of 6.2 per cent. As of Tuesday Mehsana had reported a total of 190 cases.

Surat and Sabarkantha reported two deaths each and Panchmahal saw another Covid patient dying of the infection.

While the daily bulletins by the health department states the number of patients on ventilator, government sources clarified that this only reflects patients who have been incubated for ventilator support. For example, as of Tuesday afternoon, at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, 20 were on incubated ventilatory support, 80 patients were on Bi-level positive airway pressure, 46 others were in Intensive Care Unit on oxygen support.

Admitted in the ICU was also the Civil Hospital Emergency medicine department head Dr Chirag Patel. His condition was however stable otherwise. “So far around 150 staff members of the hospital have been infected”, said a top official in the government.

As per Tuesday evening bulletin, across Gujarat, 64 patients were on incubated ventilatory support. Up to 346 Tocilizumab injections, an immunosuppressive drug that has been used by the state in response to cytokine storms where the immune system goes on an overdrive, are in government stock, as per health officials. This would be administered free of cost if needed for patients at government hospitals.