TN man from China is India’s first coronavirus tally
18 Feb 2020
India recorded first death from suspected new coronavirus infection after a 42-year-old man from Kothaimangalam village in Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu who returned from China died at a private hospital at Madurai on Saturday.
Official sources said on Monday the victim Sakthikumar, who runs a restaurant in China recently returned home due to jaundice and underwent treatment in his village. However, due to manpower shortage to run his eatery there, he returned to China recently, despite his jaundice.
Sakthikumar again returned home as his health turned bad and was admitted to a private hospital at Madurai on Friday. But he died on Saturday. Public health department officials suspect that poor Sakthikumar’s ill-health could have been aggravated possibly by coronavirus attack and are investigating.
In China, where the deadly virus was first reported, the official death toll hit 1,868 on Tuesday as 98 more people died while the total number of confirmed cases jumped to 72,436, officials said. Of the new deaths, 93 were reported from Hubei Province, the epicentre of the virus, three from Henan, and one each from Hebei and Hunan, said the National Health Commission.
The Covid-19 attack caused the death of at least 6 medical staff in China, according to media reports. A hospital director at the epicentre of China's virus epidemic died on Tuesday, state media said, the latest medical worker to fall victim to the coronavirus which has spread across the country. Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, died on Tuesday morning after "all-out rescue efforts failed," state broadcaster CCTV reported. He is the first known hospital director to have died from the coronavirus.
Liu's death was initially reported by Chinese media and bloggers shortly after midnight on Tuesday -- but the stories were later deleted and replaced with reports that doctors were still attempting to save him. At least six other medical workers have died from the virus, while 1,716 have been infected, according to official figures.
The World Health Organisation has warned against a global over-reaction to the new coronavirus epidemic following panic-buying, event cancellations and concerns about cruise ship travel.