The man was in ICU and was undergoing treatment for coronary artery disease kidney ailment and diabetes.
Medical staff wearing protective gear prepare to cremate a person, who died of COVID-19. (File Photo: AFP)
An 85-year-old Coronavirus patient, who was declared cured and was under treatment for kidney and heart-related ailments died early Saturday at a hospital Malappuram.
The patient was declared cured of the viral infection after his last three samples taken on 7, 10 and 13 of April came out negative, Malappuram District Collector Jafar Malik told PTI.
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Kerala Health Minister KK Shylaja has also clarified that the man did not die due to Coronavirus. He had age-related issues and heart issues, she said, adding that his body will be handed over to relatives and not COVID-19 protocol, but general guidelines will be followed in his funeral.
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KV Nandakumar, Superintendent of the Government Manjeri Medical College hospital, where he was admitted said, “The man was in ICU and was undergoing treatment for coronary artery disease kidney ailment and diabetes.”
Noting that the elderly patient was suffering from kidney-related ailment and was diabetic, the collector said, “He was under observation in the ICU and in the last two days there were lot of complications. Due to his age and earlier diseases, the doctors tried their best but he expired at 4 in the morning.”
He clarified that it was not a COVID-19 related death. According to the protocol, two samples have to be taken. However, in this case three were taken and all were negative. “It is a normal death,” he said.
Kerala has reported only two deaths so far and the positive cases have been on a declining trend in the past few days. In the state the total number presently under treatment is 138 and in the past week, the number of new cases was in single digits and there were around 78,000 people under observation in the state.
Kerala has so far been successful in its fight against the novel Coronavirus and is heaving a sigh of relief over the low death rate, increasing recovery rate and the declining rate of new cases.
While the death rate in India is close to three percent, in Kerala it is only 0.6 percent.
On Kerala’s rate, which is said to be among the best in the world, state Finance Minister Thomas Isaac on Monday tweeted that Kerala’s coronavirus curve has started to flatten.
Kerala was the first state to report a coronavirus case on January 30. However, it reported its first death only after almost two months.
On March 28, the state recorded its first death due to the novel Coronavirus as a 69-year-old man who returned from Dubai and was under treatment at the Kochi Medical College following symptoms of pneumonia passed away. A second death was reported on March 31 after a 68-year-old man, who had been tested positive for COVID-19, passed away.
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