Rajasthan man with comorbidities is India's first Omicron death: Centre

The death of a 74-year-old man from Udaipur, Rajasthan, was verified on Wednesday as the country's first Omicron-related mortality.

On December 15, the guy was brought to the Maharana Bhupal government hospital in Udaipur, where he tested negative for Covid twice before dying on December 31. The patient, who had been properly vaccinated, had a slew of comorbidities, according to doctors in Udaipur.

"Technically, it is an Omicron-related mortality," Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, stated on Wednesday. He was an elderly man with diabetes and other health issues."

"His therapy, including those for existing comorbidities, was continuing on as per protocol when he was discovered to be Omicron-positive," Agarwal noted.

The individual had received both vaccine doses and was first tested for Covid-19 on December 14, according to Dr. R L Suman, superintendent of Maharana Bhupal hospital.

Before the test, the patient had complained of a fever, cold, and cough, according to Dinesh Kharadi, Chief Medical and Health Officer, Udaipur.

"His report came back positive the next day, and he was admitted to our hospital the same day, on December 15th." On December 21, we took a seven-day follow-up Covid test, which came back negative. We moved him out of the Covid unit and onto the medical ICU ward as a result of the results.

"In the meantime, on December 25, we acquired confirmation of the Omicron variation through genome sequencing for his sample. On December 25, as a precaution, we tested him for Covid again, which came back negative. So we kept him in the medical ICU unit, where he was on a BiPap machine, till he died on December 31," Suman explained.

"He was diabetic, he had hypothyroidism, he was hypertensive, etc., and had never had Covid before," he stated.

The death, according to Kharadi, was caused by "post-Covid problems."

So far, the hospital has seen four Omicron cases, according to Suman. "The remaining three are well and are in home isolation," says the narrator.

A wife, a son, two daughters, and grandchildren survive the 74-year-old.

"His death came as a shock to us because he wasn't badly ill and used to walk around – he had a definite schedule which included visiting to Gulab Bagh," the 74-year-son, old's who is 50, told The Indian Express. He did have diabetes, but he was otherwise healthy."

"At first, he had a cough and a fever, which he treated with medicines. We took him to a private hospital initially, and on December 15, his RT PCR test came back positive. We secluded him and ourselves, but as his condition worsened later in the day, we admitted him to MBGH," said the son, who did not want to be identified.

The septuagenarian retired as a nursing superintendent on December 31, 2007.

"Our mother, like our father, had Covid-like symptoms and was taken to the same hospital for around five days, but she never tested positive for Covid." "Basically, he was unable to recuperate from the harm that Covid had caused to his lungs, and his health continued to deteriorate," he explained.

"Right now, we're occupied with the 13-day post-death rites. We used to be extremely reliant on him; anytime somebody in the family or the neighborhood became ill, he would step in to help. "It's very terrible to lose him in this way," the son stated.

Residents in Udaipur, where the 74-year-old is from, have warned they will be more cautious now.

"He was the sole Omicron patient in our ward," Yogesh Vasita, husband of BJP councilor Aarti Vasita, said. Following the death, we advised individuals to remain indoors and only leave the house when absolutely necessary. We've also advised local families to keep their elderly relatives at home because they're at risk."

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Rajasthan reached 5,000 active Covid cases. The number of cases in the state has been on the rise, with Jaipur being the hardest afflicted.

There were 301 new Covid cases on January 1, 192 of which were from Jaipur. The state registered 1,883 new cases on January 5th, with 1,138 of them coming from Jaipur. Rajasthan also reported 62 additional Omicron cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 236.