Coronavirus tally rises to 146 in Gujarat; death toll up to 12

With 18 new cases on Monday, the number of coronavirus positive cases in Gujarat went up to 146 while the death count has reached 12. Of the 18 new cases, 11 are from Ahmedabad, of which nine have links to the Tablighi Jamaat meet.

Ahmedabad: The number of coronavirus positive cases in Gujarat went up to 146 after 18 new cases were reported on Monday, while the fatality count rose to 12 following the death of an elderly woman, said a senior health department official.

Ten of the fresh COVID-19 cases have a direct or indirect link to the religious congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat at their headquarters in Nizamuddin in Delhi last month, she said here.

A 62-year-old COVID-19 patient, a woman with an international travel history and pre-existing illnesses, succumbed at a Vadodara hospital, taking the total coronavirus -related deaths in the state to 12, the official said.

The woman, who had recently travelled to Sri Lanka, also suffered from hypertension and diabetes, Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi said here.

One more patient was discharged from an Ahmedabad hospital after recovering from coronavirus, taking the number of such people to 22, she said.

Of the new cases reported on Monday, 11 are from Ahmedabad, three from Surat, two from Vadodara, and one each from Patan and Mehsana.

As many as 10 of the patients diagnosed with COVID-19 on Monday have a direct or indirect link to the religious congregation, which has emerged as a key source of the spread of coronavirus in the country, Ravi said.

Of the 18 new cases, 11 are from Ahmedabad, of which nine have links to the Tablighi Jamaat meet.

A case in Mehsana also has such a link, she said.

Out of the 112 active COVID-19 cases (excluding deaths and those discharged), three are on the ventilator, while the health condition of 109 others is stable, she said.

District-wise, Ahmedabad has so far reported the highest number of cases at 64, followed by Surat at 19, Gandhinagar and Bhavnagar at 13 each, Vadodara at 12, Rajkot at 10, Porbandar 3, Kutch, Mehsana, Gir Somnath and Patan at 2 each, Chhota Udepur, Jamnagar, Morbi and Panchmahals at 1 each, the senior bureaucrat said.

Out of 2,879 samples tested for coronavirus in laboratories so far, results of 32 are pending, she said.

While 87 cases in Gujarat are locally transmitted, 33 are those with a history of visits abroad, and 26 with inter-state travel history, she said.

A total of 14,054 people are quarantined, out of which 12,885 are in home isolation, 900 in government facilities and 269 in private centres.

(PTI Report)