Spike in Covid-19 cases in Gujarat after Diwali

Ahmedabad, too, had last reported so many cases in the first week of July. The city has been reporting cases in single digits since mid-July, except October 2 when it had 10 cases.

With activities resuming after Diwali, Gujarat reported a rise in Covid-19 cases, recording as many as 42 cases, including 16 from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) jurisdiction Wednesday.
The state had last reported as many cases four months ago on July 11. It has been reporting between 15 to 35 cases per day over the three weeks since October 21.

Ahmedabad, too, had last reported so many cases in the first week of July. The city has been reporting cases in single digits since mid-July, except October 2 when it had 10 cases.

Of the 16 cases reported Wednesday, an AMC health official said, 10 cases were from three families. While all are stable, a detailed contact tracing remains to be done to determine if all have a travel history owing to Diwali. “For example, one family in the southwest zone informed us that they were in Goa from October 29 to November 1. While it has been 10 days now, we cannot definitely say it was because of the travel but it could be a possibility. Another family, where an aged husband-wife couple have tested positive said they had not travelled anywhere. Prima facie from the addresses, we are not seeing any positive cases from the migrant workers’ population,” the official added.

Praveen Chaudhary, the AMC deputy municipal commissioner of health, said the civic body had planned to augment Covid-19 testing after Diwali vacations. “So from 2,000-2,500 tests per day prior to Diwali, we tested 4,000 samples Tuesday and approximately another 3,700 tests on Wednesday. The next 15 days are going to be crucial and we are keeping a watch. We are planning to keep an eye on those entering the city from outside. We have already stationed teams for testing at Kalupur and Sabarmati railway stations and the state transport bus depots since November 8 and we will continue to augment testing,” he said.
Apart from Ahmedabad, Morbi and Bharuch, which reported their last cases on July 30 and mid-August respectively, reported a case each Wednesday.

Manoj Aggarwal, additional chief secretary of the health department, attributed the sudden spike to a possible increase in testing. “The number of tests has increased suddenly. There were 31,000 tests yesterday, the day before it was fewer. On one particular day, there were hardly 15,000-16,000 tests because people were not coming for tests owing to the festivities. It is possible that they’re showing up now and we, too, have increased testing considerably. It may be possible that fewer tests could have been a factor (of the spike),” he said.

Gujarat had seen a respite in the number of daily cases from the high of the second wave, which spanned from mid-March, followed by a peak in April-end and ultimately flatlining by July-end.

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