Gujarat COVID-19 toll rises to 16 as 14-month-old dies, state tally at 175

A14-month-old boy, the youngest COVID-19 patient in Gujarat, passed away in Jamnagar hospital late on Tuesday night after battling for life for three days. The condition of the boy, son of a labourer, was critical since Saturday when he was admitted. With this, the state reported four deaths in a single day, the highest since the infection was first detected on March 19, taking the death toll to 16.

Jamanagar collector Ravi Shankar while confirming the news told DH, "The boy died of multiple organ failure." He said that the source of infection in the boy is still not known as previous tests conducted on his parents were found to be negative. He said that results of more tests of the parents are awaited.

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Officials said that the boy's father is 24 years old, who works as a labourer, while mother, 21, is a housewife, who live in a chawl in Dared village that has nearly 90 households. They are originally from Uttar Pradesh. The district administration has been checking all the possible contacts to find out the source of infection. "The virus could have been infected through the parents but since they are young and healthy, they results so far haven't been able to detected it," said a senior officer.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, state detected 29 fresh positive cases, also the highest in a day, that spiked the total figure to 175. Principal Secretary, Health, Jayanti Ravi said in her evening briefing, "Although we need to extremely careful, our situation is better than may countries and states in India. We need to stay home and work on our immunity." She said that two persons, in Patan and Surat died today and four patients are critical. Minutes after her briefing, Surat reported another casualty.

Surat municipal commissioner Bancha Nidhi Pani confirmed that two persons aged 52 and 65 died in the city. They had diabetes, hypertension and depression. The patient in Patan also had diabetes, Ravi told reporters. With this, Surat that has recorded four deaths that has 22 positive cases.

Meanwhile, state recorded 29 fresh positive cases out of which maximum 19 were found in Ahmedabad. While, the rest of the cases were detected in Surat and Rajkot, all of these have been declared hotspots of the infection by the government. What is alarming in the report is first cases detected in districts such Sabarkantha and Anand. Till Tuesday, the spread of the virus reached 17 districts, of 33 in the state.