GB Nagar reports second Covid-19 death in 24 hours

Gautam Budh Nagar district reported its second death due to the coronavirus disease on Friday night, almost 18 hours after it witnessed its first Covid-19 death.

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According to officials, the 62-year-old Covid-19 patient, a resident of Mamura area in Noida Sector 66, was under institutional quarantine at the Galgotias University hostel. Authorities of the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) in Greater Noida declared him brought dead on arrival.

On Friday early morning, a 60-year-old man from Sector 22, who had tested Covid-19 positive a day earlier, had died of pneumonia at GIMS. He was the first resident from the district to die of Covid-19, the officials said.

District magistrate Suhas LY said the Sector 66 resident’s swab samples were collected on Thursday and he was put under quarantine at the hostel. He was found Covid-19 positive around 8pm on Friday.

The officials said that the 62-year-old man was found lying unconscious in his room when a health care staff went to call him for dinner.

“He was keeping well till Friday afternoon and had his breakfast and lunch on time. But he was found lying unconscious in his room in the evening and was rushed to GIMS. The hospital authorities declared that he was brought dead. The cause of death, as per the GIMS report, is a cardio-respiratory attack,” the DM said.

Dr Rakesh Gupta, GIMS director, said that the patient was brought dead at 10:45pm. “We aren’t aware of the exact cause of death. The state health department will provide more details,” Gupta said.

His body was handed over to his family members to perform the last rights in the presence of the health and police officials.

On Saturday, two new Covid-19 cases were found in Gautam Budh Nagar, taking the total number of positive cases to 216 in the district. The two patients included the 62-year-old man from Sector 66 who died due to Covid-19. The second patient is a 52-year-old man, a resident of Khajoor Colony in Sector 45 of Noida. His source of infection is yet to be identified, the officials said.

Meanwhile, the officials have also put some people under quarantine who had come in direct contact with the deceased.

On Friday morning, GIMS authorities had said that the Sector 22 resident died of respiratory failure at 3:45am . He was admitted to Metro Hospital in Sector 11 on Monday, and tested Covid-19 positive on Thursday evening, they added.

“The patient from Sector 22 was transferred from Metro Hospital to GIMS around 3:30am on Friday, but died 15 minutes later following respiratory failure as he was suffering from pneumonia after contracting Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19,” Gupta said.

On May 4, a 47-year-old man from Khoda Colony of Ghaziabad, who was being treated at Felix Hospital in Sector 137, had died of Covid-19. As per health officials of Gautam Buddh Nagar, this death will be counted in Ghaziabad’s records. According to the officials, this man too was being treated for a respiratory problem. He first went to ESIC Model Hospital in Noida, from where he was referred to Felix Hospital last Saturday.

Meanwhile, many persons under quarantine at the Galgotias hostel have complained of unhygienic premises and poor treatment by the staff. The district magistrate has pulled up his officials earlier for negligence and asked to ensure better hygiene levels on the premises.

On April 12, a 32-year-old man who was under quarantine at the university hostel had jumped to his death. However, he had tested Covid-19 negative after his death. The health officials had blamed the quarantine centre staff for negligence that led to the man’s death.