With over 3,000 COVID-19 cases and 149 deaths, Ahmedabad is the second city after Mumbai in number of cases and in deaths. On Thursday, the city added 249 new infections and 12 deaths. The city alone accounts for nearly 65% of total cases and 70% of deaths in Gujarat.
Despite stringent stay-at-home measures and even curfew in hotspots, the number of cases has been rising and so are deaths, with one of the highest death rates, around 5%, in the country.
Gujarat recorded 313 cases and 17 deaths on Thursday, taking the total to 4,395 cases and 214 deaths. So far, 613 persons have been discharged, including 86 on Thursday.
“It is a community transmission in Ahmedabad with remnant contagion in congested areas and slums,” a top expert of infectious diseases told The Hindu, adding “with or without lockdown, Ahmedabad will only see higher infections and higher deaths.”
Data of cases suggest that the city has began community transmission weeks ago and now cases are increasingly surfacing because of the aggressive testing strategy adopted by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
