Alarm bells ring in Ahmedabad: 19 deaths in one day, 67 in one week

Ahmedabad district has accounted for over 68 per cent of the total deaths in the state, which reached 153 Sunday. Ahmedabad and Surat are among the five new hotspots, including Chennai, Hyderabad and Thane, that will be monitored by Central teams.

Of the 19 deaths in Ahmedabad — the highest reported from the city in one day — eight were of patients who did not have any other serious ailments and were in the age range of 34-59 years. Nine others suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and heart ailments, and two were listed as “high risk” and aged 60 and 65 years old.

Among the nine was Congress corporator Badruddin Shaikh, 67, who represented Behrampura ward, a hotspot in the city. Shaikh tested positive on April 15, was admitted to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (SVP) hospital, and had been on ventilator support for over a week. Officials said Shaikh had undergone a heart surgery recently, was a diabetic and had hypertension.

The city has, meanwhile, ramped up its testing. On Saturday, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation was testing 2,701 samples per million population.

Dr Atul Patel, infectious disease specialist at Sterling Hospital, which is one of the three private hospitals in Gujarat authorised to treat COVID-19 patients, attributed the fatality rate to the “likely presence of a deadlier strain” of the virus in the state.

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Thirteen of the deaths were of patients being treating at the SVP hospital and the rest at the civil hospital.

Of the 233 new cases reported from across Gujarat, 178 were from Ahmedabad, taking the total number in the district to 2,181, and the total count in the state to 3,319 Sunday.

According to state data, 54.46 per cent of deaths were of those above 60 years of age, 33.04 per cent between 45 and 60 years old, 10.71 per cent between 15 and 45 years old, and 1.78 per cent below 15 years old. And, at least 15 per cent of the total deaths reported in the state till Friday were without any co-morbidities.

Among the new cases reported from the state, 28 were from Surat, eight from Anand, seven from Vadodara, four each from Rajkot, two from Panchmahal, and one each from Banaskantha, Kheda, Navsari and Patan.

Vadodara’s new cases took the district’s tally to 241, and one death took the toll to 13. The new cases include four from the red zone area of Nagarwada, and others from Panigate, Goya Gate and Fatehpura area. A 63-year-old woman from Marathi Mohalla Navabazar, who tested positive Saturday, died Sunday morning.

Of Anand’s new cases, all are from Khambhat of which six were reported from the same locality of Pipada Sehri. Kheda district took its COVID-19 tally to six after a 48-year-old woman tested positive. Her husband tested positive on April 21 and her 75-year-old mother on April 22.