Journalist, two relatives succumb to Covid, his mother too dies

FIFTY-five-year-old Kailassinh Pardeshi, a senior journalist with the Marathi daily, “Saamana” succumbed to COVID-19 at a hospital in Savadha village of Raver taluka of Jalgaon district late Thursday evening.

The Pardeshi family has seen four deaths in last four days which has sent shock waves across Jalgaon district. Two of his close relatives — his younger brother Kishoresinh Pradeshi (52) and his wife Sangeeta (48) — also died of coronavirus two days before. His 85-year-old mother died at home out of shock, district officials said.

When contacted, district collector Abhijeet Raut said, “As per our information, of the three who died of COVID-19, one of them had co-morbodity. Doctors in Savdha told us that the family delayed their admission to hospital. They apparently stayed at home for three days, taking medicine from local clinics…”

Saamna executive editor Sanjay Raut said, “Pardeshi was a senior journalist working with the paper since 1990. He was very hardworking and diligent.”

The district collector said Jalgaon district has seen a major spike in cases in March with 1,200 cases emerging daily. “In February, the district used to have around 100 cases. In mid-February, the cases shot up to 500 and in March, we are witnessing more than 1,200 cases,” he said.

Appealing citizens not to delay their admission to hospitals, the district collector,”As of now, we don’t have problems of bed availability in the district. However, the problem arises if in  a particular area too many cases are detected. In such a situation, we have to shift the patients to to nearby places whereever bed is available.”