Over 20,000 people travelled on the state transport buses in Gujarat on the first day of service resumption.
Ahmedabad and Surat continue to report bulk of the new coronavirus cases in Gujarat as together they accounted for 267 of the 371 positive cases registered on Thursday, taking the state tally close to 13,000-mark.
Jayanti Ravi, principal secretary (health) said that 233 new positive cases were from Ahmedabad, 34 from Surat and 24 from Vadodra. Also, 24 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, she said.
“The tally of total positive case has reached 12,910 while 773 fatalities have been reported in the state as of now. A total of 4,96,730 people have been kept in quarantine, out of which 4,85,051 are in home quarantine,” Ravi said.
She claimed that the recovery rate of Covid patients in the state was improving.
“So far 5,488 people have been discharged. Condition of 6,519 affected people is stable and 52 are on ventilator,” Ravi added.
In most states, the recovery rates have shown dramatic improvement since the health ministry tweaked discharge guidelines allowing patients with mild symptoms to be home quarantined instead of admission in Covid hospitals.
Thursday also marked the second day of the resumption of state government run buses, over 20,000 passengers had availed the service on day one. The passengers have been instructed to compulsorily wear masks and maintaining physical distance.
Ashwani Kumar, secretary to chief minister, said that the state government had announced special relaxations for lockdown 4.0 for a graded restoration of normalcy amid Covid-19. “As part of this, we have allowed state transport bus service to resume operations from May 20. These buses will operate between 8:00 am to 6:00 pm in other than containment zones across the state,” he said.
“Gujarat state transport has resumed after around a period of two months, on the first day, as many as 23,069 passengers travelled on a total of 6,600 busses which include 46 express and 6,545 local trips,” said Kumar.
Kumar added that in the prevailing circumstances, it is desirable for passengers to book e-tickets or mobile tickets, however, tickets are also being issued against cash from the counters at the bus stand and by the conductor in the bus while complying with the physical distancing norms.
He also advised the passengers to arrive at the bus stand at least 30 minutes before the departure time. The buses are being operated at 60 per cent seating capacity and are also being sanitised after making each trip.
“At present, bus services are operational in all the districts except Ahmedabad. The interstate transport and the Gandhinagar to Ahmedabad service is not allowed currently,” Kumar said.
Source: Hindustan Times
