Uttar Pradesh reports its first two casualties due to Covid-19

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh reported its first two casualties due to Covid-19 on Wednesday – a 25-year-old man from Basti and a 72-year-old man from Meerut.
Worryingly, the 25-year-old from Basti was detected positive for the contagion after his death, setting off a hunt to trace all people who came in contact with him. With the youth having no recent travel history, the authorities were trying to establish how he contracted the infection.

While principal health secretary Amit Mohan Prasad ruled out the possibility of community transmission, the district magistrate of Basti, Ashutosh Niranjan, said the immunity of the youth was severely compromised owing to a prolonged history of asthma for the past 10-12 years.

The administration traced and isolated 15 people in Basti and in Gorakhpur, where the youth was brought for treatment in the city's BRD Hospital on Sunday. The 15 included six doctors and paramedics who had come in contact with him, said district magistrate of Gorakhpur, Vijayendra Pandian.

A senior police official said the possibility that the deceased may have contracted the disease at the local mosque was not being ruled out and was being investigated.

Hailing from Basti, the youth had been under treatment for three months for kidney related problems and had been brought to the hospital on Sunday afternoon. He passed away on Monday morning, after which his blood sample was tested according to protocol since he also had respiratory issues. The test came positive on Tuesday, after which it was sent to KGMU in Lucknow for a second testing where also it was reported positive. While medical practitioners in Gorakhpur have been kept in isolation, the BRD Hospital is also being sanitised and CCTV camera footage and mobile phone leads are being used to establish link with whoever he came in contact with.

The 72-year-old is the father-in-law of a man who had come to Meerut from Amravati in Maharashtra earlier in March and was found positive, after which 16 members in the family were also diagnosed with the contagion.