583 new coronavirus cases in Guj, 4 deaths, 792 recoveries

Gujarat reported 583 newcoronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the tally of infectionsto 2,53,744, the state health department said.

The state also recorded four deaths due to thepandemic during the day, taking the death toll to 4,354.

With 792 patients being discharged from hospitals,the number of recovered cases in Gujarat rose to 2,42,164.

The coronavirus recovery rate in Gujarat thus furtherimproved to 95.44 per cent, the health department said.

The state now has 7,226 active cases including 56patients who are on ventilator, it said.

No data on new tests conducted in the state wasshared.

The state health department has stopped sharing thedata on the number of tests conducted daily since January 10in its official release, but has been updating the daily testnumbers on the dashboard every night.

When contacted, an official told PTI that sharing thenumber of figures in the official release has lost relevanceas the coronavirus positive cases have been on the decline.

''With the number of positive cases decreasing inGujarat, the number of tests being conducted to detect thecases is also decreasing, as community screening is notrequired. So the test figure is no longer relevant,'' he said.

On January 7, Gujarat crossed the 1-crore test markwith the number of samples tested till that date reaching1,00,03,606.

The test figures are, however, being updated on COVIDdashboard hours after the official release is put out inevening by the state health department.

As per the update, 44,853 tests were conducted onJanuary 12, taking the total samples tested so far in Gujaratto 1,01,96,158.

After recording 1,442 COVID-19 cases on September 25,its highest single-day figure of that time, Gujarat witnesseda brief decline in daily new cases, dropping to a three-digitfigure of 996 on October 19, and remaining in the same regionuntil the first week of November.

After November 14, however, the daily cases surged,recording its highest single-day count of 1,515 on November21, thereafter increasing to 1,607 cases, the highest single-day cases recorded so far, on November 27.

The cases again dropped to a three-digit figure of 960on December 21, and has been on a regular decline since then,dropping further to 602 on January 11, as per the data.

On Wednesday, Ahmedabad recorded 116 new cases,Vadodara 107, Surat 98, and Rajkot 84.

Among other districts, Jamnagar reported 17 new cases,Anand, Gandhinagar and Junagadh 16 each, Kutch and Mehsana 12each, Bhavnagar 11, Amreli 10, etc.

Out of four deaths, two occurred in Ahmedabad whileone person died each in Panchmahal and Surat, as per therelease.

In the Union territory of Daman, Diu, Dadra and NagarHaveli, one new coronavirus positive case was reported duringthe day while a patient has recovered from the infection,officials said.

With this, the total number of recoveries rose to3,348, while the tally of COVID-19 cases stood at 3,355.

Gujarat COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positivecases 2,53,744, new cases 583, deaths 4,354, active cases7,226, and people tested so far figure not released.