Surat: In the last fifteen days, there has been a steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Gujarat. In a span of four weeks, the cases rose from 1,845 to 4, 382 recording 2.4 times rise in cases, a third major spike recorded in the state. The rise has been severe in two cities- Surat and Ahmedabad. While Surat recorded a rise of 136%, for Ahmedabad the rise was 101%.
Eight districts namely Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Gandhinagar recored 87% jump in cases from 3,507 to 6,564. In comparison, the rest of Gujarat rrecorded a 65% rise from 889 to 1,487. The spike is attributed to the civic and local governance body elections and bigticket events such as cricket matches.
Dr Dileep Mavalankar, director of IIPH Gandhinagar (IIPH-G), said that the spike is witnessed in several parts of the country currently. “The urban areas are the focal point of the pandemic due to factors such as congestion and higher degree of movement. Factors such as higher number of tests are also responsible. But if we look at the data closely, the non-urban areas are also witnessing a rise,” he said.
