At 98, new Covid cases reported in Ahmedabad at 202-day high

AHMEDABAD: In the 24 hours ending 5pm on Monday, the city recorded 98 new Covid-19 cases. This was the highest daily tally for the city in the past 202 days, or six months.
With two cases from rural areas, new cases in Ahmedabad district hit 100, accounting for nearly half the state’s tally of 204.
With the discharge of just eight patients, active cases increased by 92, taking the total number of active cases to 396 – the highest in the past five months.Hospitalization, however, remained low with 13 patients at private hospitals in the city and about 10 confirmed or suspected cases at government hospitals. The authorities said that the spread is very high in certain parts of the city and citizens must break the chain of infection by adhering to Covid-appropriate behaviour, including using masks and maintaining social distancing.
The other new cases in these 24 hours included 33 in Rajkot city, 22 in Surat city, 16 in Vadodara city, four each in Gandhinagar city and Kheda, among others. With 65 patients discharged against 204 new cases in the state, active cases shot past 1,000 to 1,086 in Gujarat. The majority of cases are concentrated in city areas, said state health department officials. Jamnagar city recorded one Covid death, taking the state’s official death toll to 10,114.
Gujarat recorded 24 new cases of the Omicron variant, taking the total number to 73. Of these, 17 have been discharged, whereas 56 are active case and in isolation at hospitals.
“Of these 24 new Omicron cases, 15 are men and nine are women. A total of seven cases had no travel history and were either direct contacts of confirmed cases or independent cases,” said a senior state health department official.