60-year-old Yemeni national dies due to coronavirus in Delhi

Delhi’s coronavirus death toll climbed to two on Friday after a Yemen national, admitted to a private hospital in the city, succumbed to Covid-19, according to senior officials from Delhi’s health department. The person had been admitted to Indraprastha Apollo hospital on March 24 after he collapsed.

He had travelled to India as a potential liver donor and was at the hospital for the necessary tests.

“The person was around 60 years old and had several co-morbidities. He had collapsed in the hospital when he had come in for the tests. As the person had travelled from Yemen and had collapsed, Covid-19 was suspected and a sample was collected. His samples were first tested at Apollo labs and then sent to ILBS for confirmation,” said a source from the hospital.

The man tested positive for the infection at the lab of the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences on Thursday. His samples were further sent to All India Institute of Medical Sciences. “A third confirmatory test was done to establish that the person was indeed positive for the disease. This was done as the kits are new,” said a government official.

So far, 41 cases – including the Yemeni man – have been reported from the city. The health ministry had reported another death in the city, but later discounted it as Covid-19 death as the confirmatory test result came negative. The person had died of cardiac complications at city’s Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality hospital.

The only other death due to coronavirus in the capital was that of a 68-year-old woman, a resident of West Delhi.