JOIN USCovid-19: Former Gujarat CM among 423 discharged even as state records yet another spike in cases
80-year-old ex Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, who was infected with coronavirus, on Monday was cured and discharged from a private hospital. He was among 423 persons who were discharged, taking the total of discharged persons in the state to 26,323 as the state recorded yet another biggest single-day spike with 735 new cases in 24 hours, taking the state's tally to 36,848.
According to the health department's bulletin, 17 infected persons died in 24 hours in the state which took the death toll to 1,962. Ahmedabad reported seven fresh deaths, taking its tally to 1,491 casualties at a mortality rate over 6.7 percent. Ahmedabad has a caseload of over 21,000 out of which 17,000 have been cured and discharged. Overall, the state has bettered its mortality rate which has gone below 6% over the past two weeks.
Over the last ten days, government's data shows new cases declining in Ahmedabad while it is exponentially increasing in Surat. Even on Monday, Surat city recorded 201 cases while Ahmedabad recorded 168, one of the lowest in two months. The health department has claimed that decline in new cases and deaths could be "timely treatment and high literacy about the virus". Besides, senior officials believe that "severity of virus has gone down" which could be one of the reasons.
However, Gujarat lags far behind in terms of number of tests conducted per day. Monday saw a total of 6,338 tests in the period of 24 hours which was one of the lowest in the last several days. Till Monday, the state had conducted a total of 4,18,462 tests.