Sohini Ghosh

While the country was under Covid-19 lockdown since March 25 till May 31, TRAI data indicates a nation wide decline in wireless subscribers for March, too, when the subscribers in four circles, including Gujarat, reported an increase.

In a rare midnight hearing, hours before the Rath Yatra on June 23, the High Court had upheld its stay on the procession in Ahmedabad despite the state government moving an application, seeking the procession to be permitted in a limited capacity in the city.

Infected employees are also facing another issue with the private hospitals in Ahmedabad refusing to recognise the Contributory Health Service Scheme (CHSS) that subsidises treatment costs for employees, as “it pays the hospital less”.

Since the first plasma donation in the state in Ahmedabad on April 18 from a 24-year-old woman who had returned from Paris and contracted the viral infection, there have been 105 donations in Ahmedabad as of July 23, of which 60 have taken place in July.

The FDCA busted a trail of blackmarketing in two instances where the drugs were being sold at a higher price, without bills. In one of the cases, the trail ran from a wholesaler in Surat through a stockist in Surat, to a pharma agency in Ahmedabad and to a pharmacist at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

High demand and short supply of the immunosuppressive drug tocilizumab has seen the Gujarat FDCA crackdown on at least two incidences of blackmarketing and counterfeit sale in a span of less than two weeks.

Since June 29, there has been a surge in cases in Surat, which overtook Ahmedabad in not only the number of positive cases, but also fatalities.

For Gujarat, the 361 viral genomes were sequenced from samples of 277 confirmed positive Covid patients, which included 100 female (with 132 genome sequences) and 177 male (with 229 sequences) patients, aged between one and 86 years.

This will be the first time that doctors from a government hospital in Ahmedabad will be lending support to another district emerging as a Covid hotspot.

An analysis of the spread of coronavirus during Unlock-1 shows Gujarat tested 13,700 more samples in June than in May and yet reported a higher daily average of new cases, indicating a higher test positivity rate.

Gandhinagar district collector Kuldeep Arya said that the surge “mainly happened in urbanised locations, with the unlock and economic activities”.

The notice from the SMC attributed the delay to be affecting the administration’s effort in controlling the “Covid-19 infection in community transmission.”

The court said, “Despite the fact that assurance being given by the State and all other applicants we still do not find any good ground to recall or modify our order dated 20.06.2020. All Civil Applications are accordingly rejected.”

The Gujarat High Court dismissed all intervening applications, as well as the state’s plea, seeking a modification in its June 20 order.

In June till date, the state has tested more than 1.02 lakh samples, which was a third of the total tests since the first case was reported on March 19. On Friday, the Ahmedabad Medical Association (AMA) pushed for 40,000 tests in a day before the HC.

The randomised, control group study will see 12 participants in each arm — one will be administered standard treatment along with UV -C radiation and another only standard treatment.

As many as 332 of the new cases were reported in Ahmedabad district where the cases crossed 17,000. According to the data provided by the state government, the test positivity rate in the state is 8.2%.

Two matters in connection with the face-off will be heard Tuesday at the HC and the Supreme Court. Why did the HC take this extraordinary step and what lies in store for the senior advocate?

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.

Yatin Oza had conducted a Facebook live press briefing on June 5, wherein he had alleged favouritism by the court and its administration for “lawyers of billionaires”.

The nurses had gone on strike at AMC-run SVP Hospital. One of them told The Indian Express that some of the senior nurses received an internal communication several days ago notifying them of an impending 10-20% salary cut.

The Indian Express has found that the CCC runs out of two locations - one in Ahmedabad on the civil hospital campus and another at an existing CCC in Gandhinagar, that was run by the state education department. The two centres reportedly had no communication with each other.

On May 28, a new bench — headed by Chief Justice Nath and including Justice Pardiwala — was notified to hear the PIL.

Fearing cancellation of Shramik trains, around hundred migrant labourers boarded the train to Cooch Behar.