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New Delhi : A 76 year old male from Karnataka has died due to Coronavirus becoming India’s first COVID-19 fatality. Death of a 76 year old male from Karnataka is confirmed to be caused due to co-morbidity and had also tested positive for COVID-19. He died on March 10, 2020.
He visited Saudi Arabia from January 29, 2020 to February 29, 2020. He was a known case of Hypertension and Asthma. He reached back to Hyderabad on February 29, 2020, and went to Kalaburgi, Karnataka. While he was asymptomatic on his return, he developed symptoms of fever and cough on March 6, 2020. One private doctor visited him at his home and treated him there. On March 9, 2020, the symptoms got aggravated and he was shifted to a private hospital in Kalaburgi. At this private hospital, he was provisionally diagnosed as “mid zone Viral Pneumonia” and “suspected COVID-19”.
The sample was collected on March 9, 2020, by Viral Research Diagnostic Laboratory, GIMS, Kalaburgi, to rule out COVID-19 and sample was dispatched to VRDL, BMC&RI, Bengaluru. Without waiting for the test results, the attendees insisted and the patient was discharged against medical advice (DAMA) and the attendees took him to a private hospital in Hyderabad.
As per instructions of Deputy Commissioner, Kalaburgi District, the DHO met the attendees to convince them to admit the patient to the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), Kalaburgi, in the isolation ward set up at the Institute. But the attendees refused to listen to him. They transferred him to Hyderabad without his knowledge. The patient was admitted to a private hospital at Hyderabad and treated. Later, he was discharged and while he was being brought back he died on the way to the GIMS, Kalaburgi on March 10, 2020.
All the precautionary measures as per protocol such as contact tracing, screening and home quarantine of the contacts have been initiated by the District Health and Family Welfare Department, Karnataka, and being monitored continuously, according to a PIB release.