Gujarat:Biggest spike in coronavirus cases takes total to 378

Gujarat reported on Friday a record 116 positive coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours till Friday evening news bulletin, the highest in the time period ever since the infection was first detected nearly three weeks back. A day before, 76 new cases had been detected in the same time period. The total COVID-19 cases rose to 378 in the state.

A majority of these cases are being detected in containment zones, which have been sealed for the past four days in cities such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. But what is worrying the state government is the new cases being reported from districts which have remained untouched. On Friday, seven first cases were reported in Bharuch, making it the 18th district in the state out of 33 where the infection has been detected. This has compelled the government to start testing in the unaffected districts.

"While a majority of the cases are being detected due to aggressive testing in the containment zones, we are now going to start testing 100 samples in districts which have not reported any cases till today," Principal Secretary, Health, Jayanti Ravi told reporters while giving updates on Friday evening. She said that the rise in the number of cases were "expected" due to intense testing in the hostpots zones. There are nearly 2 lakh people under these zones in four major cities.

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As a matter of fact, the number of positive cases started rising dramatically since April 7 when the health department started undertaking more tests. From March 18, the date first two cases were reported till April 6, the average sample testing was about 100 per day which was increased substantially after positive cases started rising in clusters containment and links to controversial religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi came into light.

In the last 24 hours since Thursday evening, a total of 1,519 samples were collected for testing, out of which 116 cases were found positive. Earlier, on April 9, the authorities had collected a total of 1,975 samples, the highest. By Friday evening, state government undertook 7,718 tests out of which 378 have been tested positive. So far, state has recorded 19 deaths, with mortality rate a little over 5%, which is said to be higher than the national average.

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on April 10

Ahmedabad has recorded the highest cases with 197 followed by Vadodara, 59, Surat, 27, Bhavnagar, 22 and Rajkot, 18 positive cases. Out of 378 cases, state has recorded 19 deaths so far while 33 patients have been cured.