A senior citizen undergoing treatment at Kolhapur’s Chhatrapati Pramila Raje (CPR) Hospital died of pneumonia on Monday morning.
As a precautionary measure, hospital authorities have sent the swab sample of the deceased to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune to check whether the deceased was afflicted with coronavirus.
According to authorities, the patient, aged 75, was diabetic and was admitted to the CPR Hospital on Sunday. He passed away sometime around 8:30 a.m.
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“The patient had no travel history to a foreign country or of recent domestic travel nor, as far as can be judged, had come into contact with any person who has tested positive for COVID-19. Yet, as a precautionary measure and as per protocol, we have sent his swab samples to the NIV for testing. The results are awaited,” said District Civil Surgeon B.C. Kempi- Patil.
Kolhapur district has recorded three positive cases till now.
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It recorded its first case on March 26 after a girl residing in the district’s Peth Vadgaon area had come into contact with a family from Islampur in neighbouring Sangli district. As many as 24 members of this family have tested positive thus far.
Almost immediately, it recorded its second case after a 37-year-old man residing in Kolhapur’s Mangalwar Peth area tested positive. The man had just returned from Pune, one of the virus hubs in the State.
On Sunday night, the test samples of a female kin of this man returned positive as well, taking the total district tally of COVID-19 positive cases to three. However, the samples of other four close kin have returned negative.
In all, the samples of 31 other COVID-19 suspects that were sent along with those of the woman and her close kin, have returned negative, said authorities.
“As a precautionary measure, all four close kin, whose samples tested negative, have nevertheless been placed in institutional quarantine facilities,” said a district official.
Last week, District Guardian Minister Satej Patil that the administration was keeping a close vigil on more than 40,000 persons who had returned to the district after travelling to Pune and Mumbai – hotspots of the virus.
The administration has tightened its vigil, clamping down on residents seen flouting lockdown orders. The Kolhapur police have confiscated around 400 private vehicles since the announcement of the lockdown and have said that they would be returned to their owners only after April 15.