Kottayam: 65-year old Gulf returnee succumbs to COVID-19; Kerala death toll rises to 8

PTI, May 29, 2020, 10:37 AM IST

Kottayam: A 65-year old man died of COVID-19 at the Government Medical College Hospital here in the early hours on Friday, taking the toll due to the disease in Kerala to eight, officials said.

“The man from Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district had severe diabetic related problems and tested positive for the coronavirus recently, days after returning from Sharjah in the Gulf where he was employed,” they said.

“After being treated initially at the General Hospital in Pathanamthittaa, he was referred to the Government Medical College Hospital here on May 25 for providing him improved health-care. The patient was put on ventilator support on May 27 and he died at 2 am on Friday,” the officials said.

Earlier, on his return from the Gulf on May 11, he was sent to a quarantine facility in Pathanamthitta. He had remained asymptomatic till his sample was collected for laboratory examination on May 16 which returned positive.

This is the second fatality in the last two days and the death toll in the state has risen to eight.

A man hailing from Telangana, who reached Thiruvananthapuram from Rajasthan and tested positive, had succumbed to the virus on Thursday.

In the biggest single-day spike, Kerala on Thursday had reported 84 COVID-19 cases taking the state’s infection count
to 1,088.