A man, suspected of having coronavirus, has died in Daudkandi area of Comilla.
His death occurred Sunday morning around 8am, nine hours after his house went into lockdown.
The patient, Aleh Khan, 55, a farmer by occupation, had been suffering from cold, fever, and shortness of breath.
Earlier, on Saturday night around 11pm, seven families, including Aleh’s family, from Maruka union of Daudkandi upazila, were sent into lockdown on suspicion of coronavirus infection.
Daudkandi upazila health official Dr. Shahinur Alam Shumon said that Aleh had received medical care for fever and cough related health issues from the upazila’s healthcare complex four to five days prior.
When Aleh started having shortness of breath on top of previous issues on Saturday, his family members contacted the healthcare complex again, he said.
After testing him at his house, medical officials suspected him of having Covid-19 infection. They proceeded to consult the upazila administrations on the issue, who in turn ordered a lockdown on the house, which housed seven families in total, he added.
It was planned that samples taken from Aleh would be sent to Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (ICDR) in Dhaka for testing on Sunday morning, but the patient passed away before that could be done, stated the official.
Daudkandi upazila executive officer Kamrul Islam said that samples taken from Aleh were sent to ICDR for testing despite his death. The results will reveal if he was really infected by coronavirus.
Covid-19 has so far infected 70 people and killed 8 people in Bangladesh.
