Ahmedabad: As new instances of Covid-19 are by all accounts fluctuating in the state with 14 new cases on Monday in the wake of announcing 23 on Sunday, locals of Surat, Ahmedabad, and Valsad have been detailing most cases for the past three weeks. From this month, testing and inoculation numbers have plunged.
Since Ganesh Chaturthi on September 10, Surat has reported over 140 cases until Monday where 26 apartments have been made containment zones.
The Surat Municipal Corporation health department on Monday issued a closure notice for 14 days to LP Savani school in the Adajan area after three students tested positive. Another undergraduate student also tested positive at a hostel at Kamrej.
SMC deputy commissioner of health Dr Ashish Naik said, “We have carried out tests on 96 students and teachers in LP Savani school where three students tested positive.”
Valsad district where Vapi industrial zone is located, has been reporting fresh cases every day since September 23, reporting nearly 40 cases from mid-September, until Monday. According to a district health department official, of the 30 active cases in Valsad at present, five are in hospital while others are in home isolation.
Ahead of Navratri festival on October 6, testing numbers have seen a drop from around 70,000 samples on September 24 to fewer than 50,000 samples since October 3. Vaccination numbers have also dropped with fewer than two lakh doses administered each day between October 1 and 3.
On Sunday, the state managed to administer only about 47,000 doses and on Monday the state covered the population with 5.96 lakh doses administered.
Although 2.38 crore first doses have been administered in the 18 to 44 years age group, less than one-third of these first dose takers have been given the second dose.
An ICMR study has warned against mass congregations to avoid a possible third wave, recording that population density in India has a stronger effect on transmission than in the USA and can amplify a possible third wave peak up to 103 per cent.
