With 29 fresh Covid-19 cases being reported in Gujarat in the past 24 hours, the total number of positive cases in the State has gone up to 175. The death toll stood at 14 as on Tuesday.

Most of the new cases were reported from the identified clusters in Ahmedabad and Surat. This has prompted the authorities to tighten the lockdown restrictions in those areas.

“We are being ruthless now to ensure that the lockdown restrictions are followed. This is in the interest of our citizens,” said Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary - Health, in a health bulletin.

A day before, the State government had declared 15 localities in four cities of Ahmedabad (8), Surat (3), Bhavnagar (2) and Vadodara (2) as hotspots and sealed the areas.

“We have begun extensive testing of all the suspected cases in these hotspot areas. A strict action plan is being implemented,” Ravi said.

Affected districts

The deadly virus has now showed its presence in Anand and Sabarkantha districts with one positive case each. A total of 17 of the 33 Gujarat districts have reported positive cases, raising concerns of a community spread.

The affected districts are Ahmedabad (83 cases), Surat (22), Gandhinagar (13), Bhavnagar (14), Vadodara (12), Rajkot (11), Porbandar (3), Kutch (2), Mehsana (2), Gir Somnath (2), Patan (5), Panchmahal (1), Chhota Udepur (1), Jamnagar (1) Morbi (1), Anand (1) and Sabarkantha (1).

Of the 175 cases, 25 patients have been discharged, 132 are stable and 4 are on ventilator, as on Tuesday.

The total number of people under quarantine is 11286, of which 10133 are under home quarantine, 935 under government quarantine and 218 in private facilities.

So far, 3,552 tests have been conducted, of which 3,257 are negative and results for 120 are awaited as on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, to ensure that crucial government staff remain on duty, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has announced that if a State government employee dies of Covid-19, the State will provide ₹25 lakh as financial assistance to the bereaved family.

Tighter vigil

While there are seven more days to go for the completion of 21-day lockdown, DGP Shivanand Jha has said the restrictive measures will be implemented more strictly across the State, especially in the affected areas.

“Apart from the police force, we are also deploying State Reserve Police Force and trained NCC and NSS cadets to ensure effective implementation of lockdown restrictions,” he said.

Jha confirmed that so far 127 people who had attended Nizamuddin Markaz were identified. They belonged to the districts of Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Mehsana, Junagadh, Botad, Surat, Chhota Udepur and Navsari.

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