Thiruvananthapuram: A 68-year-old man died of the novel coronavirus here, taking the number of COVID-19 deaths in Kerala to two, the government said on Tuesday.
The condition of the man was "extremely critical", a press release from the state-run Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and Hospital said.
The patient from nearby Pothencode, was on ventilator support for the past five days and was suffering from high blood pressure. He was also on dialysis, it said.
The first coronavirus death in the state was reported from Chullickal in Kochi. The man had not gone abroad and it is not yet certain how he had contracted the virus.
The man had been admitted to the hospital on March 23 due to fever. Though he tested negative on March 26, in the second test on March 29 he was found positive for the virus.
The samples of the deceased's wife and daughter have been sent for testing and the results are awaited. The man had attended a wedding and funeral before he fell ill.
Devaswom Minister Kadakamapally Surendran said the doctors had tried their best to save the man's life, but failed. The deceased would be buried at a mosque near his home at Pothencode on Tuesday after following all international protocol.
All those who had come in contact with the patient, including his family members, should go in for quarantine, the minister told reporters here Monday.
The man had also attended a parent-teachers meeting of a school in Pothencode, and had gone to a cooperative bank branch. The branch has been shut and the staff have been quarantined, the minister said.
Kerala on Monday had reported 32 new positive cases of Covid-19 taking the total number of patients undertreatment to 213 in the state with the worst affected Kasaragod district accounting for 17 fresh cases.
Also on Monday, an elderly couple, aged 93 and 88, was cured of the deadly virus.
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Jabalpur (PTI): Residents of a village in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district set ablaze a liquor shop after the body of an 8-year-old girl was found in a lake, a police official has said.
Irate villagers, including the mother of the victim, alleged she was raped, murdered and her body thrown into the lake by a person or group of persons who had liquor at the vend, which was set on fire on Tuesday night, the official said.
"The girl's body was found on Tuesday night. A short post-mortem suggests she was physically assaulted," Jabalpur (Rural) Additional Superintendent of Police Sonali Dubey told PTI over the phone.
"The situation is under control. Police have been deployed in the village to maintain law and order. Her short post-mortem was conducted on Thursday. We are awaiting the detailed autopsy report. We are investigating whether a single person or a group committed the crime and whether she was murdered and the body thrown into the lake," Dubey said.
Some suspects have been picked up and are being questioned, the Additional SP said.
Meanwhile, MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari claimed that crime has been at a 30-year high under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
"The people of Jabalpur must teach the BJP a lesson for such a state of affairs. CM Yadav must speak on this incident," Patwari said.