Ahmedabad, May 4 () A record 26 people succumbed tothe COVID-19 disease in hotspot Ahmedabad in Gujarat in asingle day on Monday, taking the overall number of thefatalities in the district to 234, officials said.
The biggest city in Gujarat also reported 259 newcoronavirus positive cases, which now accounts for 4,076 ofthe total 5,804 cases in the state.
With recovery of 87 more patients, the total number ofthe people discharged from hospitals in the district rose to620, according to the officials.
Ahmedabad had reported deaths of 23 COVID-19 patientson Sunday and 20 fatalities on Saturday.
"Of the 26 deceased, 14 suffered from no comorbidiesexcept the viral infection. The youngest of these patients, a26-year-old woman, suffered from TB," an official releasesaid.
Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)said the rate of doubling of coronavirus cases in the city,which accounts for a majority of the total cases reportedbetween April 15-20, has been improved while the rate ofincrease in the active cases reduced to below 6 per cent inthe last two days, with more number of patients gettingdischarged.
"The civic body has also increased its focus onpotential 'super spreaders' or people like vegetable vendorsand shopkeepers who are likely to spread coronavirus muchfaster.
"They are provided with masks and hand sanitiser freeof cost apart from screening them in large numbers," saidMunicipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra.
From the doubling rate of 3-4 days between April15-20, it is now increased to eight days by April 27-28, hesaid.
"We have further increased the Coronavirus doublingrate to 12 days and also checked the increase in the activecases at below 6 per cent in the last two days," Nehra said ina video message.
He said efforts were on to reduce the active cases tozero and to control the spread of the disease by May end.
"We would be getting 2,000 cases per day with afour-day doubling rate and 1000 cases a day with a eight-daydoubling rate. It is, however, getting stabilised. Our healthsystem is ready to handle the cases we are getting now, and alarge number of people are also getting discharged," he said.
Nehra said 11,651 potential "super spreaders," werescreened in the last 15 days by health teams of the civicbody. "A total of 2,714 samples were taken of the suspectedcases, and 222 persons isolated," he added. KA PDNSK NSK