Image Courtesy:ahmedabadmirror
Maharashtra has been on the radar for the rapidly increasing number of coronavirus cases in the past few weeks. However, what has gone unnoticed is the more than rapid spike in the number of cases next door in the state of Gujarat, with numbers tripling within a week, from 746 on April 15 to 2,407 on April 22!
The number of people succumbing to the infection has also increased by almost three times during this period, reports The Indian Express. By April 15, the state had reported 36 deaths and over the next week, 67 more deaths took place. Currently, the state has witnessed 103 deaths due to the infection.
Gujarat also has the lowest recovery rate in the country, with just 7.4 percent or 179 cases being declared as ‘recovered’. The first case of the pandemic in the state was reported on March 19. 27 districts have been declared as hotspots or containment zones by the Gujarat government. Twenty-seven districts in Gujarat have been declared as COVID-19 ‘Red Zones’. These include prominent cities such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot etc. with Ahmedabad continuing to be the centre of the pandemic. Only six districts in Gujarat have not been declared as ‘Red Zones’. These are Amreli, Dang, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Junagadh, Navsari and Surendranagar.
According to The Indian Express, Ahmedabad, five people with ‘no comorbidities’ passed away in the city on Wednesday. The eight other who succumbed to the disease suffered from other co-morbid conditions like diabetes and hyper-tension. According to TOI, 71 Covid-19 death cases recorded till April 19 showed that 66 percent or two-thirds of the positive cases saw death within two days of testing. Experts said that the late admission of patients is the reason for an early death rate. Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare said, “People with symptoms need to seek medical help early and not delay getting hospitalized once they get the symptom of difficulty in breathing. Majority of critical patients are coming late. Early detection and medical help can boost chances of survival.”
She also said that as many as 3,000 coronavirus tests were being conducted in Gujarat every day and that there were no plans to reduce testing. “We have not reduced the tests to detect coronavirus cases. We are conducting 3,000 tests every day in Gujarat. Out of these 2,500 samples are collected from across the state while 500 samples are of those who are already quarantined or admitted to hospitals,” she said.
She added that the number of Covid-19 cases had increased rapidly due to the intensive surveillance and testing in areas that were declared to be containment zones.
Amid these figures, the fallacy of the Gujarat Model of Development (GMD) has come to light. The Wire reported that Gujarat swung into action too late. It was only after the lockdown was imposed that Gujarat started the process of reserving hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients. It also procured 156 ventilators and started training its 9,000 healthcare workers after the lockdown. Currently it has around 0.33 hospital beds per 1,000 population. Its rank for per capita expenditure on health too had slipped to 11th in 2009-10 from 4th in 1999-2000. From 4.39 percent in 1999-2000, its total state expenditure on health fell to 0.77 percent in 2009-10.
Add to this, the vast number of people who attended the Namaste Trump event in February who may be carriers of the virus but may have not been tested; a number that can potentially take the number of positive cases even higher.
According to a PTI report, the Gujarat government is now set to carry out plasma transfusion treatments on Covid-19 patients in the state, for which the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad and civic-run body Sardar Vallabhai Patel Institute of Medical Sciences and Research are said to have prepared a detailed proposal. The treatment will be carried out especially on those who are in a critical condition in order to boost their immunity.
Kerala, which reported the first Covid-19 case almost has a 75 percent recovery. Maharashtra too, has shown a recovery rate of 13 percent and Goa, a recovery rate of 100 percent.
India’s overall recovery rate too surged to 19.36 percent after the recovery of 3,959 patients of the 20,000 positive cases in the country.
Related: