45-days old baby, a COVID patient with no travel history dies

Hyderabad: The 45 days-old-baby, the first Covid-19 case reported in Narayanpet district of Telangana died on April 19th . The baby boy, was declared COVID positive on April 17th, and subsequently shifted to Gandhi Hospital, where the infant succumb. While, his parents and grandmother are under quarantined.

Following the first case, the Narayanpet administration are perplexed , since the baby has no travel history barring hospital visits. Also none from the district, so far, has contracted the virus. Inspection resulted in tracing out 20 contacts of the baby, which includes the doctors who delivered and treated the infant.

Ms Hari Chandana, District Collector of Narayanpet told NewsMeter, “The baby who was born with complications passed away on Sunday afternoon at Gandhi Hospital.We still don't know the source nor can we say the baby contracted virus in the district, because we have reported zero cases . His parents are shepherds and they haven’t moved outside the village. So far samples of 20 were collected of which 12 have turned out negative while the results of the 8 are awaited'.

The administration on the other hand, doubts hospital staff to be virus carriers . According to them, the baby could have been infected while he was under treatment for fever at a hospital.

“The patient (baby) was given vaccine on April 8. Three days later, that is on April 11, he suffered from fever. The temperature can also be due to vaccination, the family assumed . From Kotakonta he was referred to Mahabubnagar Government Hospital, and from there he finally referred to Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad. Since the last five days the baby has been shifting hospitals. We suspect, he could have been infected from Mahabubnagar where he was was under treatment for two days or in Hyderabad's Niloufer hospital,” the Collector further added.