Three major educational institutions in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar reported minor clusters of COVID-19 among students even though Gujarat reported a new high of 665 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
This is the first time the state’s daily Covid cases have surpassed 600 since July 1, when Gujarat reported 632 new cases.
In the past couple of days, Covid was reported from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGn), and the GMERS Medical College and Hospital (MCH), Gandhinagar. IIMA officials said the institute reported 10 cases in two days, including six on July 5 and four on July 6. The institute’s Covid dashboard showed that all samples tested each day were positive.
A total of 11 people are under quarantine as of July 6 in IIMA. The institute has reported 931 Covid cases since September 1, 2020, including 429 students.
At GMERS Gandhinagar, 13 first-year medical students tested Covid positive. Dean Dr Shobhana Gupta, said all the first-year MBBS students who tested positive have mild symptoms.
“The Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) is testing all the people who came in touch with these students. We have opened a ward on the sixth floor of the hospital for emergencies and have started a fever OPD as well,” said Dr Gupta.
The students who tested positive had attended a freshers party on Saturday. At least 14 cases of Covid have been reported by IITGN in the last three days, according to Dr. Kalpesh Goswami, Medical Officer of Health (MoH) at GMC. Curiously, the in-charge Director IITGN Amit Prashant initially claimed ignorance but later stated that two cases had been reported on Wednesday from the campus.
Covid in Gujarat
The number of Covid cases in Gujarat reached a new high of 665 for the first time since the third wave’s end in January and February of 2022. With 252 new infections, Ahmedabad city had the highest number of cases reported.
Dr Bhavin Solanki, MoH at AMC said more Covid cases were being reported from a few wards in the city like Thaltej, Jodhpur, Bodakdev, Paldi and Navrangpura. “This is the trend since the uptick in cases began in June this year,” he said.
Among other major cities, Surat city reported 84 new cases, followed by Vadodara city (56) and Gandhinagar city (45). Valsad reported 28, rural Gandhinagar 27, Bhavnagar City 24, Navsari 22 and Mehsana and Surat Rural had 20 cases each. Kutch reported 13 cases while the rest of the cities and districts either reported cases in single digits or had no new infections.
Apart from educational institutions, the Ahmedabad City Police have also reported six Covid cases. Four personnel and two officers tested Covid positive after the Rathyatra.
On Wednesday, No Covid deaths were reported in state. 10,948 Covid deaths have been reported in total by the state. Three of the 3,724 patients with active Covid cases in Gujarat are on ventilators.