NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR/NEW DELHI, MAY 16
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Saturday attacked senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel after the latter questioned the government for “reducing” the number of novel coronavirus tests in hotspot Ahmedabad which accounts for a vast majority of COVID-19 cases in the state.
Mr CM,
1)Gujarati culture doesn’t permit me to use the tone u have used2)My source is ur govt data:https://t.co/7YPi0F3IGD
Either u or ur govt is wrong, someone must resign?3)Stop hiding behind no of cumulative tests,how many tests have been conducted per day in last 15 days? https://t.co/HtEqPH2QsP pic.twitter.com/x5ayx5UMeg
— Ahmed Patel Memorial (@ahmedpatel) May 16, 2020
As on Friday afternoon, Gujarat has 9,932 coronavirus positive cases, including 606 deaths, and 4,035 people having recovered from the infection.
Of this, Ahmedabad accounts for 7,171 COVID-19 cases, 479 deaths, with 2,382 people having recovered.
Why is Gujarat government reducing testing? This is very disturbing & is contrary to national policy of increasing tests .
In a pandemic it is important to be honest about the problem rather than trying to conceal it pic.twitter.com/UFAgqz9Jpi
— Ahmed Patel Memorial (@ahmedpatel) May 16, 2020
Patel, in a tweet, attached a graph showing the number of tests in Ahmedabad dropping from 2,522 on May 1 to 1,240 on May 14.
“Why is Gujarat government reducing testing? This is very disturbing & is contrary to national policy of increasing tests. In a pandemic it is important to be honest about the problem rather than trying to conceal it,” Patel tweeted.
As per the graph shared by Patel, 1,724 samples were tested for coronavirus in Ahmedabad district on May 17, as against 2,522 samples on May 1.
On May 12, 1,227 samples were tested, while on May 13, it was 1,503 samples, and 1,240 on May 14, Patel’s graph showed.
Hitting back, CM Rupani tweeted a table of total tests conducted in Gujarat, as well as in Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara districts till May 16.
“Mr. AHMED PATEL, Gujarat has not at all decreased number of tests. Kindly recheck your information sources which are far away from facts and ground realities,” he said in his tweet.
Rupani said Gujarat had so far tested 1,27,858 samples for coronavirus, at the rate of 1,943.3 samples per million people, which was higher than the country’s per million average of 1,478 tests.
He said 52,277 samples had been tested in Ahmedabad district, at the rate of 6419.5 samples per million.
Surat saw 23,928 samples being tested, which is 3479.5 samples per million, while in Vadodara, the figure was 6,371 samples, at a rate of 2,048.8 samples per million.
Surat ahead of Ahmedabad, Vadodara in COVID-19 recovery rate
Even as the COVID-19 count in Gujarat’s Surat district crossed the 1,000-mark, the region has a better recovery rate than severely-hit areas of Ahmedabad and Vadodara, an official said on Saturday.
Future Preparedness!! SMIMMER Isolation Ward pic.twitter.com/GO55eOeIf6
— Commissioner SMC (@CommissionerSMC) May 14, 2020
With the addition of 32 new cases on Friday, Surat district’s tally rose to 1,015, of which 991 cases were reported from the city area, a release from the health department stated.
The district has recorded the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in Gujarat after Ahmedabad (7,171) but has a recovery rate of 62 percent.
According to the latest data, of the 1,015 COVID-19 patients, 634 have been discharged, while 47 have succumbed to the infection.
કોંગ્રેસના રાજ્યસભા સાંસદ અહેમદ પટેલે ગુજરાતમાં ટેસ્ટિંગ ઓછું
કરાયું હોવાનો આરોપ લગાવ્યો હતો, જેના પર @vijayrupanibjp એ આંકડાકીય માહિતી સાથેનું તથ્ય ટ્વીટ કરીને જવાબ આપ્યો , તથા આરોપને ખોટા સાબિત કર્યા હતા..તો પ્રદેશ ભાજપ પ્રવક્તા ભરત પંડ્યાએ પણ પ્રતિક્રિયા આપી #Gujarat pic.twitter.com/D9fLuLtFk0— DD News Gujarati (@DDNewsGujarati) May 16, 2020
As against this, Ahmedabad has so far reported a 35 percent recovery rate, while 479 casualties were witnessed in the district, it was stated.
With the third-highest number of cases, the Vadodara district has reported a recovery rate of around 58 percent, with 371 out of 720 COVID-19 patients having recovered from the infection and 32 dying of it.
Surat municipal commissioner BN Pani said the civic body was taking steps to ensure early detection of cases by increasing the number of surveillance teams to 1,933 for door-to-door tracking.
Moreover, 41 fever clinics have also been set up in poor localities.
“We have set up 41 fever clinics that have identified 108 cases of coronavirus so far. Passive surveillance by 520 private clinics have revealed 281 positive cases,” he said.
Over 39.11 lakh people in the city have been surveyed, out of which 2.7 lakh persons fell in the high-risk category and have been asked to take precaution, he said.
As many as 3,130 people were currently in quarantine facilities in Surat city, he said.
Rupani invokes Lord Somnath through video-call to free mankind from spectre of COVID-19
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and his wife Anjali on Saturday prayed to Bhagwan Somnath through video-call from his residence here to free the mankind in Gujarat, India, and the entire world from the spectre of deadly novel coronavirus.
Rupani and his wife Anjali bowed down before the Lord Somnath through video-call at the altar of Somnath Temple. He said his prayers and wished everyone’s long and healthy life and returning fast to normalcy.
