Eleven more people died of swine flu in Gujarat yesterday, taking the toll due to the disease since January to 201, officials said.
According to official figures, 1,754 H1N1 cases have been reported so far, with 913 people still under treatment and 640 of them cured.
Ahmedabad was the worst-affected city with 51 deaths, followed by Vadodara (32). Surat and state capital Gandhinagar reported nine deaths each.
The Saurashtra region with 11 districts reported 61 deaths.
The state government said it had ensured additional stocks of medicines and taken others steps, including setting up isolation wards in many hospitals, but the number of patients was rising steadily.
Over 850 of the total 9,000 infected persons had succumbed to the deadly virus since 2012 - 2015 was the worst year, with 350 deaths reported from the disease.
Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, and Rajkot accounted for half of the registered swine flu cases in five years.
Swine flu has also claimed the lives of five people in Madhya Pradesh while 143 people, suspected of having the disease, have been tested in the state, health officials said.
“Diseases such as swine flu, dengue, malaria, chikungunya, etc are being analysed every day. From July 1 to August 13, 143 persons suspected of having the deadly disease have been tested in the state. Of the 140 reports that we have thus received, 28 persons have tested positive for swine flu. As we are yet to receive three reports, five persons have died of swine flu in the state,” the Health Department said.
Medical staff work at the swine flu isolation ward of the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad.
