The possibility of coronavirus spreading in Telangana has increased as the first COVID-19 casualty in India had visited at least two private hospitals at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad.
The samples of the 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi, Karnataka, who had consulted doctors at the two hospitals in Hyderabad and died on way back to his home-state, were on Thursday declared positive.
Now, the high priority task on the Telangana Health department officials is to track doctors, medical staff and others who came in contact with the man whose death is the first COVID 19 casualty in India.
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Director of Public Health G Srinivas Rao said they had identified the hospitals and contact tracking was taken up by the State Rapid Response Teams.
It was published in these columns that he was a high-risk case as the man had travel history to Saudi Arabia, and had suffered from acute respiratory illness, cold, cough and fever. Initially, he had been admitted to a private hospital in Kalaburagi where samples were collected and sent for tests to a laboratory in Bengaluru.
Before the result was known, doctors there suggested that he be taken to Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad. “He did not, however, visit Gandhi Hospital,” sources said, adding that his family had brought him to at least two hospitals in Banjara Hills. They would corroborate it, they said. On Thursdays, it was known that he tested positive for COVID-19.
“He did not die at any hospital in Hyderabad,” sources said.
The Health department officials, who had been alerted to the case, started to gather details on Wednesday. Sources said all those who had come in contact with him should be isolated immediately and their samples tested.