With two more deaths reported on Tuesday, the COVID-19 toll touched the double digit mark in Karnataka. Four deaths reported back to back on Monday and Tuesday is a matter of concern, admit health officials.
Tuesday saw 13 new positive cases in all, taking the total in Karnataka to 260, including 10 deaths and 71 discharged people.
Of the deaths reported on Tuesday, one was a 76-year-old male patient, a resident of Hindupur who was admitted in a private hospital in Bengaluru on April 12, while the other was a 69-year-old male from Vijayapura. A 55-year-old man in Kalaburagi and a 65-year-old man in Bengaluru passed away on Monday.
All the four deaths have no foreign travel history and had been admitted after they developed severe acute respiratory illness. The Kalaburagi man and his wife, who has also tested positive, had come in contact of a person who had returned from Delhi.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the 65-year-old man died at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) at 3.30 a.m. on Monday after collapsing in the washroom. He had gone from one government hospital to another before he was finally admitted in the RGICD on Sunday. However, the report confirming him, a resident of Attiguppe area, as a COVID-19 patient came on Monday evening.
The person, who had several comorbidities, including cardiac issues, first went to the RGICD after he developed severe respiratory distress. However, he was sent to Sri Jayadeva Institute of Chest Diseases as doctors felt his cardiac problems needed to be attended first. “From Jayadeva, he was referred to Victoria Hospital as doctors there felt his respiratory distress was a sign of COVID-19,” said C.N. Manjunath, Jayadeva institute director.
But, when the family called Victoria Hospital, they were asked to take him back to the RGICD as the former is now admitting only COVID-19 cases. “We have 41 positive cases here and it is risky to admit any non-COVID-19 case,” said Asima Banu, nodal officer of the Emergency and Trauma Care Centre.
The family then took him to a private hospital, and when refused admission there, took him back to the RGICD where he was admitted around 5.30 p.m. on Sunday in a critical condition. “Within hours, his condition worsened. He wanted to use the washroom, where he collapsed and breathed his last. His samples were collected and the report confirmed the infection on Monday,” sources said.
“It is unfortunate that the patient had to be shifted from one hospital to another in a critical condition. This not only delayed treatment, but also increased the number of people who came in contact with him,” said Dr. Manjunath.
Asked if doctors at Jayadeva would have been exposed to the patient, Dr. Manjunath said he was wheeled into the triage area in the hospital where doctors and nurses use PPE and N95 masks regularly and hence there could not be any exposure. “However, we have quarantined two doctors, five nurses, and three group ‘D’ staff who were on duty that day for 14 days,” he said.
Of the 13 cases reported on Tuesday, three each are from Kalaburagi, Bagalkot, and Bengaluru Urban, one each from Chickballapur, Belagavi, and Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada. A 26-year-old person from Hindupur, who travelled by a two-wheeler to Bengaluru on April 7, has now tested positive. All except three of the cases who tested positive on Tuesday are contacts of previous positive cases.
