First case of suspected Covid death reported at Andhra Pradesh's Sri Sathya Sai district

TIRUPATI: The first case of suspected Covid death was reported at Andhra Pradesh's Sri Sathya Sai district on Friday.

The deceased was identified as Bhaskar Joshi (83).

According to the district medical and health officer S Krishna Reddy, Bhaskar Joshi had an open heart surgery and was suffering from various comorbidities. He was admitted to Sri Sathya Sai super speciality hospital at Puttaparthi and was placed on a ventilator support.

"The patient tested positive for Covid when doctors performed rapid tests on him. However, we received intimation from the hospital only after the patient passed away. As a precautionary measure, we have initiated steps to isolate all his contacts and conduct tests on them. We are taking steps to prevent the spread of the virus through a series of stringent measures", asserted the DMHO.

Meanwhile, four suspected cases of Covid-19 were reported in the temple city of Tirupati.

In the wake of a sudden spike in Covid cases in certain states across the country, the district medical and health department restarted Covid-19 testing at the SVRR government general hospital in Tirupati. And among the 20 people tested, four were confirmed positive.

While two among them were asymptomatic, they volunteered for home isolation, two patients including a 70 year old elderly woman from Bengaluru have been admitted to the isolation ward here.

After inspecting the Covid-19 testing facilities and the isolation ward at the SVRR hospital on Friday, DMHO U Srihari clarified to reporters that those who test positive on rapid tests are only suspected cases until confirmed by the RT-PCR.

He added that the Covid-19 testing facilities were being scaled up across the district and asked people to once again adhere to Covid-19 safety measures as a precaution.

Meanwhile, the total count of coronavirus cases in India since itself outbreak in January 2020, has reached 4,50,10,944, with 702 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours. The total death toll due to COVID-19 has gone up to 5,33,346, with six fresh deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

The All India institute of medical sciences at Delhi has issued guidelines for Covid-19 suspected or positive cases that will be reported at hospitals following the sudden spike in coronavirus cases in the country.

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