COVID-19: Fourth death in Gujarat, positive cases go up to 55

Speaking to The Indian Express, Machra said, “There is no travel history, it may be due to local transmission but we are still trying to trace contact. She was hospitalised on March 26 as she was suffering from breathlessness although she had pulmonary fibrosis for a year, with her lungs only partially functioning. She tested positive on March 27 (the results of which were made public by the state government on Saturday morning).”

Meanwhile, two others, a 33-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman too tested positive on Saturday, purportedly contracting the infection through local transmission.

Among the new districts to report positive cases include one from Mehsana and one from Veraval in Gir Somnath, as per the state health department.

The case of a 52-year-man which is being recorded from Mehsana, according to Principal health secretary Jayanti Ravi, was in fact detected in Gandhinagar.

Mehsana Collector H K Patel said, “The person was working in Gandhinagar as a government employee at a health facility. He was admitted to Gandhinagar Civil hospital on March 26 after being symptomatic and traced to have come in contact with a positive person. His family members are based in Mehsana, and based on the patient’s recounting of his whereabouts, we have traced seven persons here in Mehsana who he came in contact with, including three of his family members who have been institutionally quarantined. Four others have been kept in home quarantine.”

Days ago, a 53-year-old pharmacist at a PHC in Gandhinagar tested positive and was also recorded to have gone to work after contracting the infection. The pharmacist purportedly contracted the infection from his 27-year-old nephew who came back from Dubai.

On Saturday, it was also confirmed that the 27-year-old’s grandfather, an octogenarian, has been infected as well. The 27-year-old man’s wife, two grandparents, father, uncle and aunt have tested positive among his family members.

Another 24-year-old health worker from Mansa taluka, a local transmission purportedly from the same cluster too tested positive.

A 65-year-old man in Veraval was admitted at the Civil Hospital there on Friday. He had returned from Dubai on March 21. The man has business in Dubai and thus travels frequently there, said a source.

Vadodara recorded it’s ninth positive case on Saturday with a 66-year-old man testing positive for Covid-19, a release from District Collector Shalini Agarwal said. The man is a relative of the 55-year-old UK national who had tested positive as the eighth case reported in the city on Thursday. Both the patients are in the GMERS hospital in Gotri, where the UK national is also undergoing kidney dialysis.

According to officials the 66-year-old man is the brother of the 55-year-old, who had visited a local hospital for his kidney treatment on his arrival from UK. The man was directed to GMERS by the local hospital after he developed acute symptoms of Covid19. As many as five staff members of this hospital have been placed under institutional quarantine at the Institute of Health and family welfare at Ajwa road.

International travelers

According to Ravi, 176 people in the state with international travel history were found to be symptomatic during the door-to-door survey. As of Saturday, a total of 4.91 crore had been surveyed either on site or offsite via telephone, through the IDSP, assisted by ASHA workers.

In a bid to better follow the ICMR testing guidelines that now allows patients with severe acute respiratory infection to be tested for COVID-19, the state has sought that doctors report such cases via a mobile application, DrTeCHO, including by doctors in any and all hospitals across the state. To see to it there is no shortage of staff,the state has now also decided to take the services of ex-serviceperson, that is those who are currently in retirement, if need be.

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