India records first COVID-19 death: 76-year-old who died in Karnataka's Kalaburagi

The 76-year-old man had returned from Saudi Arabia on February 29 and had landed in Hyderabad.

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India has recorded its first death due to coronavirus after a 76-year-old man who passed away on Tuesday was tested positive for the coronavirus. The Karnataka health department confirmed the same on Thursday evening.

"The 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi who passed away and was a suspected COVID-19 patient has been confirmed for COVID 19. The necessary contact tracing, isolation and other measures as per protocol are being carried out. Telangana government has also been informed since he went to a private hospital there,” the Karnataka health department stated.

The 76-year-old man had returned from Saudi Arabia on February 29. He had arrived in Hyderabad and then travelled to Kalaburagi. On March 5, he was admitted to the out-patient department of a private hospital in Kalaburagi. The following day he was moved to the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences. Officials said that the patient's family wanted to take him to a private hospital and moved him to another city. He was then shifted to in Hyderabad's Care Hospital, over 200 kilometres away, as his condition worsened. His condition deteriorated and his family brought him back to Kalaburagi on March 9. He was declared brought dead at the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences. His samples were collected for testing in Kalaburagi on March 10 and sent to Bengaluru’s lab for testing via courier. The samples reached Bengaluru on Thursday morning and late on Thursday evening the Health Department confirmed that he had tested positive for coronavirus infection. Health officials had stated that he had other conditions like asthma and blood pressure as well.

The Karnataka government has till now confirmed five other cases in the state. A Bengaluru Dell employee who returned from Austin in America via New York and Texas was the first person to be confirmed in the state. Later, his wife and 13-year-old daughter too were tested positive. Another techie who had travelled from US to Bengaluru via London, was tested positive next.

On Thursday, Karnataka announced its fifth case. A 26-year old who had returned from Greece via Dubai to Mumbai. He had been to Greece on a holiday and returned to Mumbai in the first week of March. Later, he came to Bengaluru and worked for a day out of his office. The government is trying to trace all the people who came in contact with him.

With the Kalaburagi native testing positive, the number of cases in India have risen to 79. Earlier on Thursday evening, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced two new cases in Kerala and a new case was reported from Maharashtra’s Pune as well. On Wednesday evening, World Health Organisation had termed coronavirus as a ‘pandemic.’