PUDUKKOTTAI: Seeking to put to rest the controversy over the suspected death of a China returnee in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukkottai district, allegedly due to the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) infection, the public health authorities said here on Tuesday that the patient, 42-year-old Sakthikumar, died of renal failure in the wake of him having suffered from jaundice for quite a long time.
Sakthikumar of Avudayarkovil near Arantangi in Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu, it may be recalled was enterprising enough to run a small restaurant in China, had recently returned to his village after an attack of jaundice. He was forced to fly back to China to run his restaurant, following anxieties over lack of sufficient number of people to take care of his eatery there.
When his jaundice turned severe, he had no other option but to again return home on February 4. Subsequently, he was admitted to a private hospital in Madurai on Friday last, but unfortunately died on Saturday, not responding to treatment, sources in his family said.
Clearing the air over the proximate cause of Sakthikumar’s death, amid suspicions that he was perhaps the first Indian Covi-19 victim since his return from China, Dr B Kalaivani, deputy director of public health services, Pudukkottai, told Deccan Chronicle over the phone on Tuesday that though the patient had tested negative for the ‘nCoV virus’, he was asked to remain in his village.
But as his health condition deteriorated, hisfamily admitted him to aprivate hospital inMadurai where he died on Saturday, clarified the official.
To a question, she said the district administration periodically receives the list of people who have returned from China and “there is no chance of missing” any China returnee from beingchecked by the health department’s surveillance.
But the deceased was absconding for a few days, which might have given room for speculation in the social media posts.
The official further said her department staff since Monday had put the family members of the deceased on daily surveillance, and screening them for any symptoms of nCoV infection.
As many as 118 people in and around Aranthangi area who had returned from China recently are under the daily surveillance of the public health department, added Dr Kalaivani to drive home that nothing was amiss from the health authorities side.
