COVID19
COVID19

7-day old baby dies of COVID-19 in Hyd, 'asymptomatic' parents yet to be tested

Testing strategy by the ICMR clearly says that asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case need to be tested.

Telangana has witnessed the death of its youngest COVID-19 patient, a 7-day-old baby on Tuesday. The baby was born in Niloufer hospital a week ago. All the primary, secondary and other contacts have been placed on home quarantine by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) personnel.  

Sources however told TNM that none of the family members including the mother and the father have yet been tested for the coronavirus. It was only on Tuesday that the Telangana government was rapped by the High Court for low number of tests in the state, 

Speaking to TNM, a senior GHMC official confirmed the baby's death. 

"The baby and the mother were discharged after delivery from the Niloufer hospital and were staying in their home. As the baby's health deteriorated, she was brought to the hospital by her parents. As she is an infant with low immunity she succumbed to the illness, however after the death it was confirmed that the baby was tested positive for COVID-19 at Niloufer."

When asked why the family was not tested for coronavirus, the GHMC official said that the family members including parents haven't shown any symptoms of coronavirus and according to the medical officials testing would be done only if the primary contacts show any symptoms.

However, revised testing strategy by the ICMR clearly says that asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case need to be tested once between day 5 and day 10 of coming into contact.

The G+1 building at Ranga Reddy nagar of Qutubullapur, in which the family has been staying from the last ten years has been turned into a containment zone. All the people in the building have been asked to remain in home quarantine for the next 14 days and were stamped by the officials.

On Tuesday, the High Court also ordered the state government to ramp up testing and especially test samples from all dead bodies for the coronavirus disease at government hospitals and criticised the state for its overall poor testing numbers.

As of now, the cases are nearing 2000 in the Telangana state as per the state government. There are a total of 1991 cases in the state of which 650 are active cases and 1284 have been discharged. 57 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19.

Yesterday alone there were 71 new cases and several districts have started reporting cases once again.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com