Guj proactively fighting to contain coronavirus outbreak: CM

Ahmedabad, Apr 24 () Gujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani on Friday said his government was working proactivelyto contain the spread of the coronavirus with aggressivetesting, and claimed members of the Tablighi Jamaat whoreturned from a gathering in Delhi last month had caused theCOVID-19 numbers to shoot up.

The state has 2,815 COVID-19 cases, and 127 peoplehave died of the infection so far.

"There has been a rise in cases, especially inAhmedabad, Surat and Vadodara. Eighty per cent of the casesare from these three cities, with Ahmedabad accounting for 60per cent.The higher number of cases in Gujarat is due toaggressive testing," Rupani said.

He said his government had quarantined 6,000 peoplewho had come from abroad in March.

"But the cases increased after Tablighi Jamaat membersmet in Delhi last month and then spread the virus to Gujaratand rest of the country," he added.

The Centre on Friday said its teams would visithotpsots like Ahmedabad and Surat in the state to monitorefforts to control the outbreak.

"The state has proactively made arrangements to fightCOVID-19. In the initial stage, we had 9,500 beds but now weare working to increase that capacity to 25,000. We do nothave any problems as far as ventilators, N-95 masks andmedicines are concerned as all these things items aremanufactured in Gujarat. We bought around 200 ventilators froma Rajkot manufacturer called Jyoti CNC," Rupani said.

He added that 80 per cent of the patients areasymptomatic, while the death rate due to the infection isthree per cent.

"People are asking why so many people have died inGujarat. That is because those who died had comorbidities likehigh blood pressure, diabetes, and one was even suffering fromcancer," Rupani said.

Earlier in the day, Ahmedabad Municipal CommissionerVijay Nehra had said that the number of COVID-19 patients inthe city may reach eight lakh by the end of May if the currentfour-day period of doubling of cases continued. PDBNM BNM