First year Delhi University student dies of COVID

NEW DELHI: An 18-year-old first year student of Delhi University's St Stephen's College has died due to COVID-19 at a hospital in Kota, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) said.

Satyam Jha of BA (Honours) History had left Delhi for Kota in the last week of April for some family work and was attending online classes owing to the pandemic situation "He succumbed to the disease on Tuesday after being on ventilator for eight days.

He had also been elected as a member of the new organising committee of SFI St Stephen's formed in April," the SFI said.

Ananyo Chakraborty, a second year student of the college, and SFO member, said they came to know about Jha's demise on Wednesday.

"I am the president of another society The Gandhi Ambedkar Study Circle. On May 14, we elected the council members of the society and everybody responded but he didn't. I was concerned and inquired from him. Two days later, he informed that he was hospitalised due to Covid. On May 19, he told me that he had low oxygen levels," he said.

In a statement, college principal John Varghese said, "He was 18. A young man looking forward to life, expectantly. His dreams and those of his parents and all who loved him came to an end with his death. His soul though, we pray, hope and believe, rests in eternal peace."

The Gandhi Ambedkar Study Circle also put out a statement on Instagram condoling Jha's death.