Even as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation continues its measures of intensified testing of COVID-19 in the walled city area, Mayor Bijal Patel said that the situation in the city was getting serious.
For the last two days, the walled city area that has a population of nearly 29 lakh has been under curfew. Earlier, it was under cluster containment plan following increased number of cases after many of those who attended a congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin tested positive.
On Thursday, while requesting people to avoid coming out of homes without any reason, Patel said that the city's condition was becoming serious. He also pointed out that an MLA, corporator, AMC officers and nurses have tested positive in the city.
Patel was referring to Congress MLA Imran Khedawala who tested positive on Tuesday hours after he met Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. Congress corporator Badruddinh Sheikh and his wife have also tested positive for the coronavirus.
After Kehdawala tested positive, the chief minister has been carrying out all his work from home. Visitors have been banned at his residence for a week's time and he has been holding meetings through video conferencing.
Samples of all those who met Khedawala have been taken. Five persons who were in touch with him, including his extended family members, have also tested positive.
Out of the 58 new positive cases reported in Gujarat, 53 were from Ahmedabad which also accounts for 59 per cent of the total number 929 COVID-19 positive cases in the state. The city with a population of more than 92.50 lakh has reported 545 cases. A total of 36 persons have died in Gujarat so far.
Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Jayanti Ravi has maintained that the medical teams have been “taking out people” for testing. She also said that the chief minister has taken note of health care workers and other staff getting infected by the virus.
The AMC has launched a new initiative to further ramp up testing, involving private labs. Municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra said that donors will pay for tests to be done by private labs. Cautioning people, he asked them to behave as if everyone around them is positive.
