Andhra Pradesh records first Covid death as 55-yr-old succumbs

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh reported its first Coronavirus death on Friday, when a 55-year old man, a resident of Kummaripalem located in the outskirts of the city, who died on March 30 at the Government General Hospital in Vijayawada, was found through posthumous testing to be Covid-19 positive.

However, the state health authorities confirmed that he was Covid positive on Friday. State nodal officer Dr Arja Srikanth, in an official release, said that the son of the deceased had returned home after attending the Tablighi Jamaat’s religious congregation Markaz in Nizamuddin in New Delhi on March 17. The deceased’s wife had died due to health problem at her home a day before him, on March 29.

The deceased, who was suffering with chronic ailments like high blood pressure, heart issue and diabetes, developed symptoms of Covid-19 by March 30 and was shifted to the GGH in Vijayawada at about 11.30 am. Doctors collected his swabs samples and sent them for testing and kept him under observation. He died an hour later.

Considering him to be a suspect for Covid-19, hospital authorities followed Covid-19 protocol while handling his body and sent it directly to the Muslims burial ground at Bhavanipuram.

Police said that only limited number of his family members, including his sons and daughters-in-law, were permitted to attend his funeral. The body was buried six feet depth, complying with the protocol.

A day later, on March 31, his son was found to have tested positive for Covid-19. Health authorities and local police identified as many as 29 contacts of the deceased and sent them all to quarantine.

Krishna district medical and health officer Dr I. Ramesh said, “though this man died on March 30, within one hour after taking admission at the government hospital, we collected his samples upon suspicion of Covid-19.

The samples were sent for testing twice at the testing centre in Vijayawada. As more number of samples belonged to returnees from foreign countries and a religious meet in Delhi had come for testing at the same time, there was delay in getting test reports of samples of the deceased.

As samples tested Covid-19 positive, we have declared the deceased to be a positive case today. Moreover, we have ensured compliance with protocol during burial of the deceased, considering him to be a suspect case for Covid-19.”

The son of deceased, however, struck a contrarian note, saying, “since I returned home from Nizamuddin in Delhi, I have not witnessed any symptoms like cold, cough, fever and difficulty in breathing. I travelled by flight from Delhi to Vijayawada with nearly 200 passengers, including 25 brethren from my community. None of them have showed any Covid-19 symptoms so far. We lost our mother, who was an Asthma patient, as she failed to get proper treatment at government hospitals in Guntur and Vijayawada. My father, who love her a lot, felt depressed and his blood pressure and sugar rose alarmingly, after which he died. We carried our father in our hands to the third floor of a government hospital in Vijayawada because there was no stretcher or wheel chair available. There was no prompt response from doctors present to attend to him. Instead, they branded him to be Covid-19 suspect. We wonder as to how doctors could declare my father to be Covid-19 positive now.”

Meanwhile, Bhavanipuram CI D.K.N. Mohan Reddy said, “as many as 82 persons, including 18 from non-Muslim families from Vidyadharapuram, where the deceased used to stay, volunteered to undergo quarantine. Accordingly, all of them have been sent to a facility at Kankipadu for quarantine.”