COVID-19 death toll hits 32 with 1,251 positive cases in India
Despite the 21-day lockdown, the death toll due to the novel coronavirus is increasing rapidly. As on Monday night, at least 32 patients have died due to the infection so far. Reports of new deaths have also surfaced from across the country and are yet to be added to the official figures.
Despite the 21-day lockdown, the death toll due to the novel coronavirus is increasing rapidly. As on Monday (March 30) night, at least 32 patients have died due to the infection so far, including eight in Maharashtra, and six in Gujarat.
Reports of new deaths have also surfaced from across the country, including in Kerala and West Bengal, and are yet to be added to the official figures.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there are 1,251 positive cases across the country, as on March 30. This included 49 foreign nationals.
Apart from this, six people who attended a religious congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin from Telangana, died due to the novel coronavirus, the state government said on March 30. However, the ministry is yet to publicise the death toll associated with this.
Second death in Kerala
A 68-year-old man died of the novel coronavirus here, taking the number of COVID-19 deaths in Kerala to two, the government said on Tuesday (March 31).
The condition of the man was ‘extremely critical,’ a press release issued by the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and Hospital said. The patient from nearby Pothencode, was on ventilator support for the past five days and was suffering from high
blood pressure. He was also on dialysis, it said.
The first coronavirus death in the state was reported from Chullickal in Kochi. The man had not gone abroad and it is not yet certain how he had contracted the virus. The man had been admitted to the hospital on March 23 due to fever. Though he tested negative on March 26, in the second test on March 29 he was found positive for the virus.
The samples of the deceased’s wife and daughter have been sent for testing and the results are awaited. The man had attended a wedding and funeral before he fell ill. Devaswom Minister Kadakamapally Surendran said the doctors had tried their best to save the mans life, but failed.
The body would be cremated at a mosque near his home at Pothencode on Tuesday after following all international protocol. All those who had come in contact with the patient, including his family members, should go in for quarantine, the minister told reporters here Monday.
The man had also attended a parent-teachers meeting of a school in Pothencode, and had gone to a cooperative bank branch. The branch has been shut and the staff have been
quarantined, the minister said.
Kerala on Monday had reported 32 new positive cases of Covid-19 taking the total number of patients undertreatment to 213 in the state with the worst affected Kasaragod district
accounting for 17 fresh cases. Also on Monday, an elderly couple, aged 93 and 88, was
cured of the deadly virus.
Another COVID-19 patient dies in Bengal
A woman infected with the coronavirus died at a hospital in West Bengal’s Howrah district, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths to three in the state, a health department official said on Tuesday.
The woman in her 40s had recently visited north Bengal but had no foreign travel history, he said. “The person died on Monday night before test results came. Her test results confirmed that she was infected with the coronavirus,” the official said.
Meanwhile, four new cases of coronavirus have been reported in West Bengal, taking the count to 26, he said.