Covid-19 pandemic: Gujarat reports 20,966 cases, sets new record

Gujarat on Wednesday recorded its highest single-day rise of 20,966 new coronavirus infections besides 12 deaths, the state health department said.

On Tuesday, the state had reported 17,119 new

cases, the highest one-day rise till then.

People should not take the Omicron variant of coronavirus as lightly as common flu and must follow precautions like social distancing, members of the Gujarat government's COVID-19 task force said earlier in the day. The caseload in the state rose to 9,77,078 on Wednesday while the death toll on account of the pandemic reached 10,186. Six patients died in Ahmedabad, two each in Valsad and Sabarkantha, and one each in Surat and Bhavnagar districts. A total of 9,828 coronavirus patients recovered during the day, taking the tally of recoveries to 8,76,166. The number of active cases rose sharply to 90,726. Of these patients, the condition of 125 is critical, the health department said. As per the data for Tuesday (which became available on Wednesday) the state's positivity rate was 13.11 per cent. On Wednesday, Ahmedabad district recorded 8,529 fresh COVID-19 cases, followed by Surat with 3,974 cases, Vadodara 2,252 and Rajkot 1,386, among other districts. Some 2.02 lakh people received coronavirus vaccine shots during the day, taking the number of doses administered so far in the state to 9.55 crore. The Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu reported 39 new COVID-19 cases and 28 recoveries. The territory's tally of cases rose to 11,089 and that of recovered cases to 10,844. There are 241 active cases in the UT which has reported four deaths so far. Gujarat's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 9,77,078, New cases 20,966, Death toll 10,186, Total recoveries 8,76,166, Active cases 90,726, People tested so far - figures not released.