India Confirms First Coronavirus Death

New Delhi: Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu confirmed first death in India due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) late on Thursday.

The swab samples of a 76-year-old man, who died in north Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district on Tuesday, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. “The necessary contact-tracking isolation and other measures as per protocol is being done,” he tweeted.

The victim had returned to India on February 29 after a month-long stay in Saudi Arabia. During  screening on his arrival at Hyderabad airport, he, however, had displayed no symptoms of COVID-19.

He was initially admitted to a private hospital at Kalaburagi with symptoms of pneumonia, asthma, blood pressure and hypertension.Three days later, his relatives shifted him to a hospital in Hyderabad, where his samples were sent for testing.

According to the government, he was discharged from the hospital before test results and against medical advice.

On the instructions of Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner, health officers tried to persuade his family to admit him to an isolation ward at the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences.

They instead got him admitted to another hospital, from where he was treated and discharged. He died while being brought back to the hospital in Kalaburagi, a report published in the NDTV said.

The Union Health Ministry has so far confirmed more than 70 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection and it includes 17 foreigners in isolation in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. More than 11 lakh people have been screened at airports across the country.