Gujarat Covid tracker: Discharge number multiplies, many ‘recovered’ without tests

June 2 saw the biggest spike with a record 1,114 patients across the state discharged, of which 1,013 were from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) limits, 818 of these were “discharged” from home isolation, 21 from Covid care centres and 174 from hospitals of which a near 60 per cent share was from the frontline AMC-run SVP Hospital and state government’s Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

More than half were discharged in a 10-day period, what the Gujarat Covid tracker dashboard lists under the head “recovered”. By middle of May, the number of patients discharged daily in Ahmedabad was consistently 60 per cent or more of the state’s discharged patients. In fact, on June 1 and 2, Ahmedabad accounted for more than 90 per cent of the state’s total discharged patients.

After the new discharge policy, the trend began to change. On May 10, for the first time since the first Covid case was reported in Gujarat, the number of patients discharged (454) overshot those reported positive (398) in a single day. From May 26 to June 2, the state saw more Covid-19 patients discharged than those reported positive. From June 3, after lockdown relaxations, the trend began to reverse and the new cases were more than the number discharged.

The daily Covid bulletins issued by the AMC categorise discharged patients as those discharged from hospitals, Covid care centres and home isolation. Deputy Municipal Commissioner Om Prakash Machra who handles the health portfolio says, “In cases where a patient spent a few days in hospital and then opted for home isolation, AMC shall consider the patient discharged only after the home isolation period and not as discharged from hospital.”

“The patients listed as discharged from hospitals or Covid care centres in our bulletins are those that had to spend 14 days in the institution. A hospital will consider a patient who was admitted and discharged, as its discharged number. We do not consider that for our data purposes,” says Machra.

Some patients The Indian Express spoke to had different experiences to share. Dhaval Patel, 30, from Ghodasar area in Ahmedabad, was tested six days after showing symptoms. He chose home isolation when tested positive on May 9, after which no health worker checked on him for 14 days.

“I was told to be in isolation till May 23 during which no one called or came to check. On May 9, I was given antibiotics and other medicines and was told that in case my condition deteriorates I can call 104 (fever helpline) or 108 (emergency). I work in the pharma industry and my family members lived downstairs… so I could manage. I monitored my own vitals as I had the equipment,” he said.

Kamlesh Patel, 34, a resident of Vejalpur, tested positive for Covid-19 on May 8 and three of his family members tested positive later.

“I opted for admission at Hotel Fern and was discharged on May 15. I was advised to be in home quarantine for seven more days. My wife and mother-in-law tested positive on May 10. My mother-in-law was admitted at SVP Hospital and was discharged on May 31. My wife was advised to be in home isolation. Then our daughter tested positive on May 16 although she never showed any symptoms. No one came to check on us. While my wife’s home isolation period was till May 28, my daughter’s was till May 30 but even the red sticker outside our home (notifying the house has patients in home isolation) was not removed. Eventually we had to call the AMC to tell them to remove it. Till now we are getting calls asking about our status… I don’t think they have recorded us as discharged patients.”

Machra, however, says that the state health department follows up with patients for a period of seven days even after scheduled date of discharge, thus expanding the period of monitoring to 21 days.

Arun Mahesh Babu, District Development Officer (DDO), Ahmedabad district, explains that while quarantine is for observation purposes, discharge is counted if released from an institutional facility or home isolation.