70-year-old man dies, 25 more test positive in city

Vadodara: With the death of a 70-year-old man in Vadodara on Friday of swine flu, the virus that is rising at an alarming rate has claimed 21 lives in Vadodara city and district so far since the beginning of this year.
The man died at a private hospital in the morning, while 25 more samples tested positive of the virus on the same day. Of these new cases, 21 have been reported from areas falling within the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) limits, three from Vadodara district while one has been reported from neighbouring Mahisagar district.The fresh cases within the VMC limits are from Manjalpur, Sawad (Harni), Jubileebaug, Gajrawadi, Karelibaug, Gotri, Yamuna Mill, Akota, Tandalja, Subhanpura, Gorwa, Tarsali, Makarpura and Kapurai. The total number of swine flu positive cases within VMC limits reached 254 since January 1. Of these, 169 patients have been cured, 71 are under treatment and 14 patients have died.
Fresh cases in Vadodara district have been reported from Padmala, Karjan and Vadodara taluka while the case from Mahisagar has surfaced from Lunawada town. In Vadodara rural, the total number of swine flu positive cases have reached 49 on Friday, of which 28 patients have been cured and 14 are under treatment. Seven patients have died since January 1.
VMC medical officer (health) Dr Devesh Patel said that the viral flu seemed to be following a cyclical trend. “There were high number of cases in 2015 and 2017 too. We expect the number of cases to go down in the next two to three weeks,” he said.
According to sources, once summer sets in there will hardly be any more cases of swine flu. Chances of another round of H1N1outbreak, however, is likely later in the year.