(Image source from: livemint.com)

A 76- year- old man who had died on the 10th of March is the first fatality caused by being infected by the deadly novel coronavirus as his test reports show positive indicated that he had been infected by the deadly virus, on Thursday.

B Sriramulu who is the Health Minister has confirmed the death of the 76- year- old man being caused by getting infected with the COVID-19.

The victim is said to have a travel history to Saudi Arabia and had returned to India on the 29th of February after a month long stay in Saudi Arabia. It has been said that the man has been screened at the Hyderabad airport on his arrival and that he was not posing any symptoms during that period of time and therefore the virus has not been detected during the screening that has been done at the Hyderabad airport.

The victim has died on the 10th of March while he was being brought from a Hyderabad hospital to Kalaburagi and samples of his throat swab has been received at the lab in Bengaluru on the 11th of March.

It has been said that the man had paid a visit to a private hospital in the district on the 5th of March where he has been admitted on the following day with fever and cough and he was also having other health issues as well such as asthma, hypertension. After three days he has been shifted to a hospital in Hyderabad where his samples have been sent for testing.

According to the government, the family of the man has discharged him before the test result and against the medical advice that has been given by the authorities. The  health officials have tried for persuading them in order to get the patient admitted to an isolated ward at the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences, following the instructions given by the Deputy Commissioner of Kalaburagi.

However, the family had disagreed and refused to the health officials and have transferred the man to another hospital where he has been treated and discharged. It is said that the man had died while he was being brought back to the hospital in Kalaburagi.

The officials of the health and family welfare department of Karnataka has said that, although the man has come from a country which is affected by the deadly novel coronavirus, the symptoms that the man was showing were misleading and the tests for the novel coronavirus have been delayed due to the health issues that the man had been suffering due to old age such as difficulty in breathing, asthma and hypertension.

By Shrithika Kushangi