AHMEDABAD: The number of COVID-19 cases in Gujarat crossed the 10,000-mark on Saturday, with 1,057 new patients being found positive for coronavirus including 709 "super spreaders" in Ahmedabad, which accounted for 14 of the total 19 deaths, a Health official said.
The total cases now stands at 10,989 while the number of fatalities rose to 625, the official said.
"Ten of the 19 deceased were suffering from comorbidities," said Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi.
"Apart from 348 new cases reported on Saturday, the state health department has added a tally of 709 'super spreaders' on Friday who were found coronavirus positive in Ahmedabad during the tests conducted over the last one week following a massive screening of 33,500 such super spreaders," Ravi said explaining the total number of new cases.
A total of 273 patients were discharged, taking the tally of thew recovered patients to 4,308, Ravi said, adding that the rate of recovery stood at 39.20 per cent.
Apart from 14 deaths in Ahmedabad, two patients died in Surat while one each died in Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar and Banaskantha.
"Super-spreaders" are potential carriers of the viral infection who could infect a large number of people coming in their contact.
They could be vegetable vendors, grocery and milk shop owners, petrol pump attendants or garbage collectors, who by the nature of their job carry the risk of contracting and spreading the viral infection.
Ahmedabad has reported 264 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of the affected patients in the district to 8,144.
Surat's case tally mounted by 34 to 1,049 and by 19 to 639 in Vadodara 19, Ravi added.
The total number of active cases stood at 6,056 in the state, 46 of whom are in critical condition, she said.
A total of 1,38,407 samples have been tested for coronavirus infection in the state so far, including 3,961 samples in the last 24 hours, she said.
Gandhinagar (163), Bhavnagar (107), Anand (82), Rajkot (79), Banaskantha (83), Panchmahal (69), Aravalli (77) have also reported a higher number of cases apart from Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara.
Gujarat COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 10,989, new cases 348, deaths 625, discharged patients 4,308, active cases 6,056 and the number of people tested so far 1,38,407.
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.
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 per cent.
According to the latest data, of the 1,015 COVID-19 patients, 634 have been discharged, while 47 have succumbed to the infection.
As against this, Ahmedabad has so far reported 35 per cent 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 per cent, 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 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.