Gujarat: 364 new cases, death toll at 922

Days after the Gujarat High Court pulled up government officials and Gujarat Health Minister Nitin Patel for the condition at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital owing to the high number of Covid-related deaths, the state government submitted that the hospital’s Covid wards were visited five times by Patel in the last two months and around 20 times by Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi and Health Commissioner Jaiprakash Shivahare. The officials met patients, doctors, resident doctors, nurses and other staff members, according to a press note.

Press briefings were not held for the fourth day on Tuesday. No data for those on ventilator support across the state was available in the daily bulletin.

Ahmedabad reported 251 new cases, taking the total to more than 10,800 cases, while Surat saw 36 more persons test positive, taking the total to 1,387 cases. Vadodara’s total crossed 900 with 31 new cases, while the Vadodara Municipal Corporation declared the deaths of four more patients, dating back to May 13 up to May 18. The four — two men and two women — were aged between 61 to 77 years and had comorbidities.

Panchmahal’s death toll, too, rose to seven with a 65-year old man from Godhra dying while undergoing treatment in Vadodara. He was already suffering from hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Kheda, Patan, Mahisagar and Surat reported the death of one patient each.