Saudi-returned Covid-19 suspect dies in Murshidabad hospital

0
30

Kolkata, A suspected Coronavirus patient, who returned from Saudi Arabia, died in the government Medical College in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Sunday, a senior official said.

Two other suspected Conoravirus patients were admitted in the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beliaghat here during the day. One of them, also a resident of Murshidabad, had returned from Saudi Arabia during the day and was diagnosed with fever during thermal screening at the NSCBI airport.

The ailing youth at the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital breathed his last early evening on Sunday.

The 33-year-old, a resident of Nabagram, fell sick while returning home on Saturday after flying to the NSCBI Airport here earlier in the day from Saudi Arabia, where he used to work as a cleaner.

As he was running a fever, and complained of respiratory distress, his family members took him to the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital in Bahrampur on Sunday where the doctors admitted him at an isolation ward after a preliminary check-up.

“One of the doctors who examined him felt it is a suspected case of coronavirus. So we admitted him considering the symptoms and the fact that he has returned from abroad. But he also had uncontrolled blood sugar, which could have also caused his death,” Hospital Medical Superintendent cum Vice Principal Debdas Saha told IANS over phone.

His throat swab sample was collected and sent to National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), but he passed away before the report could arrive.

“It takes at least a day to get the report. So, there was no way we could get it today,” said the hospital official.

According to the victim’s family members, he had been staying in Saudi Arabia for the past five years. But over the past two years, his blood glucose levels had gone up. Recently, the levels increased further, following which his employers sent him home.

Arrangements were being made for the Muslim man’s last rites by following the standard protocol given by the state Health Department for coronavirus patients, said Saha.

The family members of the victim and all others who came in contact with him are likely to be quarantined as a precautionary measure and kept under observation.