22-05-2025
34 active Covid cases in Gujarat; all but two reported in Ahmedabad
On May 13, a 20-year-old woman was admitted to GMERS Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad city with respiratory discomfort and fever. The woman was seven months into her pregnancy. Her condition began to deteriorate over the following week and on May 21, her test results came out. She had tested positive for Covid and was moved to the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit (RICU) of the hospital.
Doctors told The Indian Express that she had been placed on the Non-Rebreather Mask (NRBM) receiving concentrated oxygen support. While her medical condition was not critical, it was not 'very good either', said doctors.
Medical Superintendent Dr Deepika Singhal Saxena said, 'The Covid patient is in the RICU and receiving treatment from a team of specialist doctors, including obstetricians, doctors from the medicine department, and pulmonologists.'
The woman is among a total of 34 active Covid patients in Gujarat but only one of two who are currently admitted to a hospital. The other patient, whose medical condition is said to be stable, is admitted to another private hospital in Ahmedabad city.
As many as 32 of the 34 active patients diagnosed positive for the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus are in Ahmedabad city; while one patient is in Rural Ahmedabad, another is in Rajkot city, confirmed Dr Nilam Patel, the Additional Director of Public Health for Gujarat.
All these patients have been diagnosed only in the past one week, said officials of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), adding that they were suffering from fever, cough and other mild symptoms. This is why the other 32 patients have been recommended only home isolation, they added.
The Indian Express has further learnt that only one of these 34 patients had international travel history. The person had travelled to Singapore.
Notably, none of the family members of the patients have been infected so far. All 34 patients are the lone infected members in their respective households, confirmed Dr Patel.
Gujarat health department officials said active surveillance of Covid cases, which has not been recommended by the Centre yet, was not underway in the state as of now. However, testing when in doubt and voluntarily self-isolating at home in case of symptoms has been recommended.
While the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has currently seen a surge in South-East Asia through the JN.1 lineage, most prominent among them being the LF.7 sub-variant, the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) of nasopharyngeal samples of the active Covid cases in the state is still underway at the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) with results expected in the next couple of days.
