Vaccination drive has been suspended, either partially or fully, in Gujarat since May 14. The drive was partially suspended from May 14 to 16 after the Central government announced changes in the interval between two doses of the Covishield vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. Subsequently, the drive was fully suspended for all categories from May 17 to 18 owing to cyclone Taukate.

Gujarat reported 6,447 new Covid-19 cases and 67 deaths on Tuesday, the state government announced it will suspend vaccination drives across the state on May 19 and resume them from May 20.

With the new announcement Tuesday, the drive now stands to be resumed from Thursday.

Testing, meanwhile, continued to decline from 1.21 lakh samples on May 17 to 1.14 lakh samples on Tuesday.

The overall test positivity rate (TPR) in Gujarat hovers around five per cent, however, it continues to remain high in some districts — nearly nine per cent in Mehsana and Mahisagar, about 10 per cent in Panchmahal, and more than 10 per cent in Junagadh. In Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad, the combined (municipal corporation and rural areas) TPR on May 17 was recorded over 11 per cent.

Ahmedabad city, meanwhile, has seen a decline in daily surge, reporting 1,862 new cases and 12 deaths. A continuous decline in testing numbers— 21,759 samples tested on May 17, has also been recorded in the city.

With Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) jurisdiction, bed vacancy improved in hospitals with nearly 40 per cent of the over 9,300 oxygen- and ICU-equipped beds remaining vacant until Tuesday evening.

In Anand, which added 214 new cases and three fatalities, some of the key hospitals such as Shree Krishna Hospital at Karamsad, Petlad sub-district hospital and Apara Hospital continued to operate on full capacity, together treating 706 Covid-19 patients on Tuesday. As per the state dashboard, the district has a total of 1,547 active cases.

No ventilator or BiPAP were available across the Covid-19 hospitals in Kheda, where nearly 140 cases were reported. Overall, across the state,755 patients are currently on ventilator support, the state health bulletin stated.

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