Hyderabad: The government on Saturday reported the state’s first death related to the coronavirus, that of a 74-year-old man who passed away late last week. Tests on samples collected from his body showed him to have been coronavirus Covid-19 positive.
The man was a resident of the Khairatabad zone in the city. He had travelled to Delhi to attend a religious meeting and returned on March 17. Three days later, he was taken to a private hospital in Saifabad with high fever and respiratory problems.He was prescribed treatment and sent home.
However, he passed away at home. His body was taken to the Gandhi Hospital mortuary because of the Covid-19 symptoms he had shown, and samples taken from his body tested positive.
Members of the deceased’s man family have now been placed under quarantine.
The spread of the virus in Telangana in continuing unabated with the total number of positives on Saturday rising to 67 from 59 the previous day. Overall, Telangana has conducted 27,688 tests.
Ten of the 65 active Covid-19 cases under treatment turned out negative in their first test, bringing some cheer to the health department.
Health minister Etala Rajendar told reporters that a second set of confirmation tests will be conducted on these patients on Sunday. If they test negative, they will be scheduled for discharge as per the advice of the doctors treating them.
The health minister said there have been no cases of community transmission of the virus in the state. Every one of the cases so far, including that of the man who died Covid-19 positive last week, either had a travel history by which they picked up the disease elsewhere, or had come into contact with someone who had travelled abroad.
In the 22 cases detected since Friday, Rajender said, six were from one family in the Old City, four were from one family in Qutbullapur, three from another in Domalguda. While in the first two instances, two men from the families had visited Delhi to attend religious gathering at Jama Masjid earlier this month, in the third case, a doctor who works at a hospital in the city, the case had contact with another person who had returned from London recently.
Rajendar said the number of people under mandatory quarantine in the state has come down to 13,000 from 20,000 or so as the isolation period for them had ended. He, however, urged everyone, including those who have completed quarantine, to strictly observe the lockdown and not leave their homes.
“There are still some people who are breaking quarantine and putting the lives of others, including their families and friends at risk. They should follow their instructions properly,” he said.
Two men from among the six new coronavirus positive cases declared on Saturday by the Andhra Pradesh government had been to Hyderabad before travelling to their destinations in the neighbouring state.
According to the daily bulletin issued by the AP government, a 65-year-old man who reached Hyderabad on March 9 travelled by bus to Vijayawada the next day. Seventeen days later, on March 27, he developed symptoms and tests confirmed him as Covid-19 positive on Saturday.
The second person is a 23-year-old male who travelled by train from Rajasthan to Secunderabad, arriving here on March 18. He then took a MMTS train from Secunderabad to Kacheguda and, the next day, on March 19, took the Venkatadri Express to Kurnool. He travelled to different places in AP and on March 24 developed symptoms and went to GGH Kurnool where his samples were collected, according to the bulletin.
