Guj's COVID-19 cases up by 390 to 7,403; deaths so far 449

(Eds: Adding details)

Ahmedabad, May 8 () With as many as 390 more peopletesting coronavirus positive since previous night, the totalnumber of COVID-19 cases in Gujarat reached 7,403 on Friday, ahealth official said.

During the same period, 24 patients succumbed to theinfection, taking the death toll due to the pandemic in thestate to 449, said Principal Secretary, Health, Jayanti Ravi.

Out of the total 390 new cases that were detectedduring the day, 269 were from Ahmedabad. Other major centresinclude Vadodara (25), Surat (25) and Arvalli (20).

Of the total 24 patients, who succumbed to theinfection in the 24 hours, as many as 22 died in differenthospitals of Ahmedabad, while one each died in Bhavnagar andSurat.

Till now, 449 people have died due to coronavirus inGujarat.

As many as 163 patients recovered in the past 24 hoursand given discharge from different hospitals, taking the totalnumber of such patients to 1,872.

Of the total 1,05,387 tests conduct so far in Gujarat,results of 7,403 have come positive, while 97,984 have testednegative.

"As requested by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani,the Centre has decided to send AIIMS director Rajdeep Guleriaand Dr Manish Sureja to Gujarat on Saturday, to help the statein reducing the mortality rate," said Ravi.

"Both these experts will reach here by a specialflight from Delhi. They will visit Ahmedabad civil hospitaland SVP Hospital to take stock of the situation. These expertswill interact with our doctors and share their feedback withus before leaving," she added.

According to Ravi, Gujarat does not figure in the listof top five states that have registered the highest increasein positive cases between April 30 and May 6.

She added that the state's COVID-19 cases growth ratewas 50.7 per cent and the case doubling rate now stands at 12days.

Of the 449 persons who died so far due to theinfection, as many as 343 have succumbed in Ahmedabad alone.

Similarly, of the total 7,403 cases registered inGujarat till now, as many as 5,260 cases were reported inAhmedabad alone, followed by 824 cases in Surat and 465 inVadodara.

Gujarat's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positivecases 7,403, new cases 390, deaths 449, discharged 1,872active cases 5,082 and people tested so far 1,05,387. PJTPDKRKNP NP