BHOPAL: A 65-year-old woman from Ujjain town has become the first Coronavirus related casualty in Madhya Pradesh. A native of Jansapura area of Ujjain district (55 km from Indore) the elderly woman died at around 3.30 pm at MY Hospital (state government’s biggest hospital) in Indore on Wednesday.
She was admitted at the Indore hospital on March 23 and her samples sent from Ujjain district had tested positive for the deadly virus only on Wednesday morning. According to Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) of Ujjain district Dr Anusuya Gawli, the aged woman was taking medicines from some private doctor since last few days and was brought to the Ujjain Charitable Hospital on March 22 as her condition worsened.
With the doctors suspecting her symptoms to COVID-19 related infection, she was referred to the Ujjain District Hospital where the doctors took her samples and sent it for testing at the MGM Medical College in Indore. She was subsequently referred to MY Hospital in Indore on March 23. On March 25 early morning, she was found to coronavirus positive and passed away around 3.30 pm.
“With diabetes having already compromised her immune system, she could not be saved by doctors despite all possible efforts,” Indore district collector Lokesh Jatav said. The woman's local contacts in Ujjain are under scanner as she had no abroad or inter-state travel history.
The Ujjain CMHO further told The New Indian Express that they are checking all contacts of the woman, including unconfirmed inputs about her having attended prolonged anti-CAA demonstration at Begum Bagh colony of Ujjain in the recent past.
“Her death (despite having no travel history) is alarming and we need to track the possible hidden carrier of the deadly virus as soon as possible. Both her sons and the doctors who attended her at Ujjain Charitable Trust Hospital recently have been asked to self-quarantine. The locality where she resided too has been sealed,” the CMHO added.
Meanwhile, six new cases were reported in Madhya Pradesh over last 24 hours including the Ujjain case, four from Indore (two women) and a 55-year-old journalist from Bhopal, whose UK-returnee daughter had tested positive three days ago. With this total number of COVID-19 positive cases in MP has jumped to 15. Out of the total 15, six have been reported from Jabalpur, four from Indore, two from Bhopal and one each from Gwalior, Ujjain and Shivpuri. All six towns and cities have been put under indefinite curfew and affected areas have been sealed.
The senior journalist who tested positive for the virus was among the dozens of journalists who had attended then Chief Minister Kamal Nath's press conference at the CM House in Bhopal on March 20. He was also among those scribes who had gone to Vidhan Sabha and later attended a press conference at state BJP HQ same day.
According to health department and district administration sources, all those people who were present at the March 20 press conferences or had met the journalist are being traced and will be asked to self-quarantine at their homes. "The daughter-father duo has been admitted at AIIMS Bhopal and are stated normal," the CMHO Bhopal said.