Two Covid deaths in a day rattle Kerala

KOTTAYAM /ALAPPUZHA: A 36-year -old man from Pandanad in Chengannur became the latest victim of Covid-19 in the state on Friday as Kerala reported two deaths in a single day for the first time since the virus outbreak, taking the toll to nine. Jose Joy, who returned from Abu Dhabi on Wednesday morning, was taken to a Covid care centre in Alappuzha for institutional quarantine. Jose, who was a liver patient, started vomiting blood on Friday morning and collapsed.

He was immediately shifted to the Alappuzha Medical College Hospital (MCH). He breathed his last at 2.15 pm. Test results of his swab samples, which came out in the evening, showed he was infected by coronavirus. Earlier, P T Joshi, 65, a native of Perumthuruthy near Tiruvalla, who had returned from the UAE on May 11, died at the Kottayam Medical College around 2am.

Joshi, who had been working in Sharjah, reached Kochi from Dubai and was in institutional quarantine at a Covid c a re centre in Pathanamthitta. Though he had not developed any symptoms, his serum samples were collected on May 16 and the results showed that he was infected.