Swine flu toll nears 300; 9 more deaths reported

With nine more people succumbing to swine flu in the last 24 hours, the death toll in the state is nearing 300, official sources said.

The state government said three deaths were reported from Ahmedabad, and one each from Surat, Kutch, Bharuch, Gir-Somnath, Amreli and Junagadh.

With these, the number of lives claimed by swine flu in the state in the current year has shot up to 297, the second highest after Maharasthra, which has reported about 420 deaths so far. More than half of the deaths in Gujarat have taken place in August alone, according to officials.

According to officials, 207 new cases of swine flu were reported in the state in the last 24 hours. Incidentally, almost half of these, that is 102 cases were reported from Ahmedabad, which has been the worst-hit by the outbreak.

Officials said that Vadodara city reported 23 new cases, followed by Banaskantha (7), Ahmedabad district (6) and Bharuch (6). Sabarkantha and Jamnagar reported five cases each, while Surat and Rajkot cities, Gandhinagar and Kutch reported four cases.

Swine flu cases were also reported in Rajkot, Vadodara, Mehsana, Kheda, Dahod, Anand, Patan, Panchmahals, Aravalli, Porbandar, Mahisagar, Bhavnagar and Amreli districts.

Officials said that 208 patients were discharged on Wednesday. …read more