Gujarat, on Monday, announced the complete sealing of 15 localities across four cities even as the number of coronavirus cases in the State ballooned to 146.

The State reported 39 cases in just past two days, prompting the authorities to implement the cluster containment strategy by completely sealing the localities, which are hotspots of the coronavirus infection.

The total number of Covid-19 positive cases in Gujarat rose to 146 on Monday, after 18 new cases were reported in past 24 hours. Total fatalities due to the coronavirus stood at 12.

After a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday evening, the State government declared 15 localities in four cities — Ahmedabad (8), Surat (3), Bhavnagar (2) and Vadodara (2) — as hotspots for the coronavirus infection, and decided to completely seal the areas, under the cluster containment strategy.

Hotspot action plan

Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary - Health, Government of Gujarat, said, “We have seen sharp surge of 39 positive cases in past two days in the State. It is observed that most of these cases were from specific locations. Therefore, it is decided to implement hotspot action plan for these locations and seal the areas for any public movement.”

Following the sealing, people living in these localities will not be able to move out the outer limits of the area, and anyone from the outside will be allowed to enter.

“A strict action plan is being implemented under which we will contact trace all those who came in contact with the positive cases. And even those whose test results are negative, but were in contact with the positive cases, will also be put under quarantine. The entire area will be sanitised,” Ravi said during the evening health bulletin.

New cases

Earlier in the day, 16 cases were reported of which 11 were from Ahmedabad, and 9 of them had connections to Nizamuddin Markaz event.

Currently, 15 of the 33 districts in the State have reported positive cases, with Ahmedabad at the top, with 64 cases, followed by Surat (19), Gandhinagar (13), Bhavnagar (13), Vadodara (12), Rajkot (10), Porbandar (3), Kutch (2), Mehsana (2), Gir Somnath (2), Patan (2), Panchmahal (1), Chhota Udepur (1), Jamnagar (1) and Morbi (1).

“We have begun intensive testing across the hotspot, where we are seeing clustering. Ahmedabad is seeing addition to positive cases,” added Ravi. The positive cases in Ahmedabad are mostly from muslim-dominated areas.

Of the 146 cases, 22 patients have been discharged, 109 are stable and 3 are on ventilator, as on Monday.

The total number of people quarantined is 14,054, of which 12,885 are under home quarantine, 900 under government quarantine and 269 under private facilities.

So far, 2,879 tests have been conducted, of which 2,701 are negative and results for 32 are pending as on Monday evening.

Giving details about the source of infection, Ravi stated that of the 144 positive cases, 33 had international travel history, 36 having inter-state travel and 87 from local transmission.

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