The death march of Covid-19 continued unabated in Gujarat as 30 more people succumbed to the virus in 24 hours on Tuesday, pushing the death toll to the ominous figure of 913. State recorded 396 cases, taking the total tally to 14,864. Of the 30 deaths, 25 were reported from Ahmedabad, three from Gandhinagar and one each from Surat and Anand. Conforming to the international trend, analysis of Gujarat’s deaths reveal that 65% of male patients had died. Out of 888 deaths so far, 576 are males. Analysis of 548 deaths from May 1to 24 in Ahmedabad shows a slightly higher percentage of 66.3% deaths of males.
Dr Tushar Patel, city-based critical care specialist, said number of patients with comorbidities is comparatively higher among men. “Two factors of older age and co-morbidities have resulted in high mortality ratio for several patients. It’s the trend also seen in several other non-communicable diseases like diabetes.”
A senior medical officer at Civil hospital also confirmed the trend. “When we compare patients by gender, men tend to have higher viral load with more exposure to the virus. In most women, it was the transmission through their family. But in higher age groups, I believe the death rate is nearly the same,” he said. He added that biologically, women are a stronger gender and similar trends were observed in other viral outbreaks in the past. Of the new cases, 310 were from Ahmedabad, 31 from Surat, 18 from Vadodara and 12 from Sabarkantha. It was second highest tally in a single day ever for Ahmedabad district. On May 5, Ahmedabad had recorded 349 cases.
1,975 fresh cases in India
After recording 1,975 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, India's total number of Covid-19 cases surged to 1,51,915 and the death toll mounts to 4313.
