India Records Its First Case of Coronavirus Death as 76 Years Old Dies in Karnataka

India records its first death due to Coronavirus as a 76-year-old man dies in Kalaburagi district of Karnataka. Two days before the man was admitted, after he was tested positive for novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

On February 29, the victim had returned to India after a month-long stay in Saudi Arabia. On arrival, he had been screened at Hyderabad airport. Though he displayed no symptoms at that time.

Karnataka’s Health Minister B Sriramulu tweeted late Thursday night, “The 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi who passed away and was a suspected COVID-19 patient has been confirmed for COVID-19. Contact tracing (of family members and others he came in contact with), isolation and other measures, as per protocol, are being carried out”.

On March 5, the man complained of uneasiness and went to a private hospital in the district. He was admitted the following day with cough and fever. The person also had other health issues such as asthma and hypertension. Three days later he was sent to a hospital in Hyderabad, where his samples were collected and were sent for testing.

According to the government, against the medical advice, the family of the person discharged him before getting the test results. The Deputy Commissioner of Kalaburagi and health officers intervened and tried to persuade the family to admit the patient to an isolation ward at the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences.

The family refused and transferred him to another hospital, where after treatment he was discharged. He died while he was brought back to the hospital in Gulbarga.

In addition to this, a fifth case is reported in the state. All the infected individuals are in hospital and stable. Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu also said that the new patient a 26-year-old man who had just returned from Greece has been placed in an isolation ward at a Bengaluru hospital.

Sriramulu also added, “Primary contacts (of the 26-year old man) have been traced and are asymptomatic. Home quarantine has been advised and follow-up is being done”.

Apart from this hundred Indians are stranded at different airports of the world, waiting to be evacuated. According to an estimate, hundreds of Indians are stranded at different airports in Italy, which is one of the worst-hit countries in the world. Thousands more are stranded in Iran, another worst affected country. Indian Air Force recently evacuated 58 Indians from the Middle East country. 

So far India has more than 70 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection, confirmed by the Union Health Ministry, which includes 17 foreigners, who are in isolation in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Across the country, more than 11 lakh people have been screened at different airports.

According to the latest record, more than 4,500 people have been killed and more than 1,00,000 people are infected with the virus since its outbreak in a food market in China’s Wuhan district in December last year.

The World Health Organisation has already declared the novel coronavirus a ‘pandemic’, which means it, has spread across the world and affected a huge number of people.

In a series of tweets, the WHO also wrote, “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity (of the virus) and by the alarming levels of inaction”.