A 62-year-old doctor died of Covid-19 at a hospital in Indore on Thursday, days after contracting the infection, The Hindu reported. This is the first reported death of a healthcare professional due to Covid-19 in the country.
The doctor, a general physician, ran two clinics in the city for the last 40 years, the newspaper reported. He is believed to have contracted the infection from one of his patients.
Indore Chief Medical and Health Officer Pravin Jadiam said the doctor had been hospitalised a week ago after he began experiencing breathing difficulties and developed a cough and fever, The Times of India reported. After his condition worsened, he was moved to the hospital designated for coronavirus treatment in the city.
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Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan paid a tribute to the doctor on Twitter. “He died protecting the invaluable lives of other people and fighting the battle against COVID-19,” he wrote in Hindi. “Superhumans like you can never be forgotten.”
Health officials, meanwhile, are trying to trace the patients who may have visited the doctor’s clinic, according to The Times of India.
Madhya Pradesh has 229 cases of the coronavirus, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Thirteen people have died of the highly-infectious Covid-19 in the state. Of the total cases, 110 have been reported from Indore.
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