COVID-19: Street vendors banned in Surat for a week as Gujarat tally nears 40,000
Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) buses ferry passengers to Saurashtra during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown in Surat (File | PTI)
Surat: The Surat Municipal Corporation on Tuesday banned street vendors in Katargam, Varachha and Sarthana areas for seven days to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
The notification on this was issued by Surat civic chief Banchhanidhi Pani, and it comes days after paan shops were ordered shut for a week in the three areas on July 3.
The civic body has asked street food vendors and eateries in other areas to strictly follow social distancing and other norms in place for the outbreak or face fines of Rs 5,000.
Surat has over 5,500 coronavirus cases, the maximum of which are from Katargam, Varachha and Sarthana that are home to diamond polishing units.
These units are shut till July 13.
The state on Monday reported yet another highest-ever single-day spike of 735 coronavirus cases, raising the tally to 36,858, while 17 more patients succumbed to the infection, seven of them in Ahmedabad, the state health department said.
With the death of 17 more COVID-19 patients, total fatalities rose to 1,962, it said.
The number of recovered cases increased to 26,323 with 423 more patients getting discharged on Monday, the health department said in a release.
Surat reported the highest number of 241 COVID-19 cases in the state, followed by Ahmedabad at 183 and Vadodara at 65.
With this, the total coronavirus cases in Surat rose to 6,209, in Ahmedabad to 22,075 and in Vadodara to 2,628.
Bhavnagar district reported 35 new cases, Banaskantha 24, Rajkot 21, Bharuch 18, Gandhinagar 17, Valsad 13, Mehsana 12 and Kutch 11, among others, the release said.
Out of the total 17 COVID-19 fatalities, seven were reported in Ahmedabad, six in Surat, two in Aravalli, and one each in Banaskantha and Kheda.
District-wise, Ahmedabad reported the highest number of recoveries with 240 patients getting discharged, taking the total number of such people to 17,069.
Surat reported discharge of 86 patients, taking the total number of recoveries in the district to 4,007.
The state now has 8,573 active cases with the condition of 69 patients being critical, while the remaining 8,504 are stable, said the release.
Gujarat COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 36,858, new cases 735, deaths 1,962, discharged 26,323, active cases 8,573 and people tested so far 4,18,464.