A 40-year-old woman from Kandivali in Mumbai and a 45-year-old man from Buldhana became the latest casualties of COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the State’s death toll to eight. Both had no international travel history and health officials are yet to trace their contact with any patient or high-risk person.
The Mumbai woman’s husband is a taxi driver. She was admitted to a private facility and when her condition worsened, they suspected COVID-19 and she was taken to KEM Hospital. While being examined at the outpatient department, she collapsed. “The doctors rushed her to a room in the casualty ward designated for suspected COVID-19 patients. Her condition deteriorated quickly and she succumbed,” said additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani. “Her husband is not in a position to narrate the exact history and her contacts,” he said.
A 23-year-old resident doctor who intubated the woman has been placed in home isolation. “About eight to 10 staff members [including nurses, ward boys and others] have been placed in home isolation and will be tested on the third day. If we test immediately, the tests may come negative,” KEM dean Dr. Hemant Deshmukh said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Civic officials said the woman had hypertension, and her COVID-19 test came positive on Sunday.
Health officials remain puzzled by the death of the Buldhana man, a school headmaster, who was diabetic and had no travel history. “We haven’t found him in contact with any person with a travel history either,” said a health official. Twelve staff members, including doctors from a private hospital where he was admitted, have been placed in isolation along with his family members and contacts.
On Sunday, the State recorded 17 new cases — nine from Mumbai, one from Pune, three from Nagpur, two from Ahmednagar and one each from Sangli and Buldhana — taking the tally to 203. So far, 35 patients have been discharged.
ADVERTISEMENT
86-year-old critical
An 86-year-old woman from Ghatkopar, who tested positive on Friday, is in a critical condition. Her son, a U.S.-returned man, had tested positive earlier as had his 68-year-old domestic help. While those two were discharged from Kasturba Hospital, the mother had tested negative earlier and was in home isolation. After she tested positive, civic officials traced her contacts afresh as she had stayed with relatives for a few days and was admitted to a private nursing home. She is now at Powai’s Hiranandani Hospital.