Argentine music researcher Dr Santiago Lusardi Girelli dies of COVID-19 in Goa

PANAJI: Dr Santiago Lusardi Girelli (42), a musician from Argentina who was a visiting research professor at Goa University, succumbed to COVID-19 on Wednesday, a former varsity official said.

"Girelli breathed his last at a private hospital in South Goa where he was being treated for COVID-19," Ramrao Wagh, former director of the Visiting Chair Professor Program of Goa University, told PTI.

Girelli had tested positive for coronavirus infection a month ago when he underwent the test as he wanted to travel to Spain to meet his family, Wagh said.

When his health deteriorated, he was admitted to the Goa Medical College and Hospital and then to a private hospital in Margao.

Girelli was appointed as the visiting researcher at Goa University in 2008 on the Chair set up in the memory of Goa-born musician Anthony Gonsalves, Wagh said.

Girelli was a master in sacred music (Church music), he said.

"He came all the way from Argentina to establish and direct Goa University Choir, thereby, enormously enriching our institutional life," Wagh said in a condolence message on behalf of the University and its Vice Chancellor Professor Varun Sahani.