Coronavirus: 18 of 44 Gujarat cases that of local transmission

The Gujarat government on Friday said 18 of the 44 COVID-19 patients in the state got infected through local transmission while the rest 26 have travel history.

Of the 18 local transmission patients, 16 had come in direct contact with foreign-returned infected persons while two had visited places like Delhi and Jaipur, said Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary, Health.

The state has not recorded a single coronavirus positive case since Thursday evening, Ravi added. "All 11 samples sent for testing yesterday returned negative on Friday. I urge people to adhere strictly to the lockdown," she said.

In a proactive measure to find out suspected cases, the state government has initiated an on-site and off-site survey of each and every citizen living in Gujarat.

Till now, 3.50 crore persons have been screened under this massive drive, she said. Five people had tested positive in the state on Thursday, taking the total number of COVID-19 patients to 44.

Of these, 15 are in Ahmedabad, eight in Vadodara, seven each in Gandhinagar and Surat, five in Rajkot and one each in Kutch and Bhavnagar, she said.

Three people have died so far in the state due to the infection. As many as 19,377 persons are in home quarantine.