Gujarat on Monday recorded 1,640 coronavirus cases, the highest single-day jump since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, reported The Indian Express. On November 27, the state had registered 1,607 cases, its previous highest daily count.

With Monday’s new Covid-19 cases, the tally in the state climbed to 2,88,649, according to PTI. The toll rose to 4,468 after four people died. As many as 1,110 patients recovered, taking the total of recovered cases to 2,76,348. There are 7,847 active cases in Gujarat.

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The daily cases in the state had fallen below the 250-mark in the first week of February before climbing again. It crossed the 1,000-mark on March 17, rising to 1,640 on Monday.

Among the districts, Ahmedabad reported 483 Covid-19 cases, followed by Surat with 473, Vadodara 159, Rajkot 152, Kheda 41, Gandhinagar 34, Bhavnagar 32, Dahod and Panchmahal 23 each and Kutch and Morbi 17 each.

Health officials said that the bed occupancy in Ahmedabad has doubled over the last week. The maximum increase was found in the high dependency units and intensive care units. Private hospitals, offering Covid-19 treatment, have also risen from 63 to 70 on Monday, taking the total capacity of beds up from nearly 2,200 to 2,631 in the city.

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In Vadodara, civic authorities have issued a direction to hospitals, making it mandatory for them to “prudently” admit patients and promote home-based care for others. Since Saturday, 480 people have been admitted to the hospitals in the city.

The bed occupancy rate has increased since last week, according to official data. On March 15, the overall occupancy increased to nearly 20%. This jumped to 35% on March 21 and 39% on Monday.

Meanwhile, 2,32,831 people received the coronavirus vaccine on Monday, including 2,22,186 belonging to those above the age of 60 and suffering from comorbidities.

To tackle the surge in infections, the Gujarat government had suspended on March 18 all offline classes and examinations in schools and colleges in eight municipal corporations – Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Gandhinagar.