Emergency cases decline even as 5 die in Surat, 4 in Vadodara

Among different categories of medical emergency cases, on January 14, highest rise from normal days was reported in cases of physical assault that increased from 61 cases to 237 cases; an increase of 288 per cent.

Also, non-vehicular traffic cases recorded a spike of 167 per cent from normal days and vehicular traffic cases increased by 123 per cent as against 347 cases reported on normal days, 697 cases were reported on January 14.

Among districts, Rajkot reported the highest increase in emergency cases — 77.86 per cent as against 131 cases on normal days, 233 cases were reported.

Chief operating officer of GVK EMRI, Jashvant Prajapati, stated that they were expecting a spike in cases and were prepared to manage the possible extra work during the festival.

A total of 60 kite related emergency medicine calls were reported from across Gujarat on Friday. The highest — 14 — were cuts due to kite thread, while 12 were related to fall during kite-flying in Ahmedabad.

Fatalities in Vadodara

Three persons died in separate incidents by falling off the terrace of buildings where they were flying kites and one motorcycle rider was killed Thursday after a kite string slashed his throat.

A migrant labourer from Dahod working at a construction site in the city was killed after a kite string slashed his neck near the Vadsar flyover Wednesday. Police said passersby called an ambulance but the man was declared dead by the paramedical staff. According to 108 ambulance service officials in Vadodara, over 25 ambulances attended to close to 80 calls of injuries due to kite strings.

In Vadodara, around 250 birds, mostly pigeons, were injured due to kite strings. Bird rescue centres set up across the city attended to calls and provided medical assistance to the birds, taking precautions in view of the ongoing H5N8 avian flu.

A statement from the office of Gujarat DGP said that Rs 2.13 crore was collected as fine from 21,358 persons across Gujarat for masks and social distancing violations during celebrations from January 12 to 14. A total of 1,888 persons were arrested for curfew and notification violation.

5 dead in Surat

Dipak Ninama (18) and Sunil Vasuniya (17) — both residents of Ganeshnagar society, Amroli in Surat, and native of Madhya Pradesh — died after they were hit by a train while catching kites on a railway track on Thursday night, police said.

In another incident, Raju Sardar (25), a resident of Limda street in Haripura of Surat, fell off the terrace of a four-storey apartment while flying kite. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. In the third incident, Bhupendra Makwana (55), a resident of Sonifalia, fell off the terrace of a three-storey building near his house, Thursday evening, while flying kite and succumbed to his injuries.

Akshay Bhambhor (10), was flying kite on the terrace of a under-construction building near his house in Sagrampura, Friday, when he fell off. He was rushed to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival.