Noida: 65-year-old dies within hours of testing Covid-19 positive

NOIDA: A 65-year-old Covid-19 patient died of respiratory distress in Noida on Friday night, hours after he tested positive and before he could be moved to an isolation ward. This was the fifth death in Noida — all five Covid deaths in the city have occurred within the last nine days.
The JJ Colony (Sector 8) resident had been quarantined at GIMS two days before that. “The patient had been diagnosed with pneumonia. His test report came back positive around 8pm, but he died of cardio-respiratory arrest around 10.30pm, before he could be moved to the isolation ward,” said Brigadier Rakesh Gupta (retired), director of GIMS.
The nature of cases, meanwhile, has also been turning serious. Till about 10 days ago, most patients in Noida were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. But as of Saturday, there is one patient on ventilator at the level 3 (L3) ward in Sharda Hospital and five others on oxygen support (one at Sharda Hospital and four at GIMS).
Five more tested positive, including the 65-year-old who died, taking the total number of cases to 247. With 12 patients discharged, the number of active cases is now 61. The recovery rate of district is 73% now, higher than the state and national average.
The new cases include three more patients from JJ Colony — two women (26 and 45) and a 20-year-old man from JJ Colony, Sector 5. The fourth patient is a 32-year-old man from Skytech Matrott in Sector 76. His wife had tested positive three days ago.
There are around 55 cases from JJ Colony in Sectors 5, 8, 9 and 10 so far, about 22% of all cases of the district.