Coronavirus in Mumbai: IIT-Bombay reports first fatality due to COVID-19

The first death due to COVID-19 on the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) campus was reported on Thursday after an employee with the Institute's transport department succumbed to the deadly virus.

According to the IIT Bombay spokesperson, the 40-year-old employee lived outside the campus and shifted in the campus five-six days ago. "Two days back he started showing symptoms. The IIT-B hospital suspected he might have COVID-19 and so he was shifted to BYL Nair hospital where he tested positive. He had co-morbidities and succumbed to the infection on Thursday evening," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that the deceased was living in a Class 3 employee building, in which 36 families were housed. The building has been sealed and contact tracing is on. Also, the authorities along with the BMC are figuring out remedial action.

IITB director Dr Subhasis Chaudhari took to Facebook to announce the development.

"With profound grief, we announce that the coronavirus has taken its first toll in the IITB campus! We have just lost a staff member who mostly used to stay just outside the campus but had moved into the campus recently. May his soul rest in peace. It is a big loss to the IITB community. It has also given us a big jolt that despite so much of precaution and community help in maintaining the campus free of this virus, it did find its way in. As we mourn this untimely death, we also pray for the well being of the rest of the IITB community," stated in a post of Facebook.

The first case of COVID-19 at the IIT Bombay campus was reported on May 2 after the wife of a staffer tested positive for the virus.

According to the institute authorities, the infected woman worked as a health worker at a government hospital in south Mumbai and might have contracted the virus from a COVID-19 patient. Her husband, who is an employee of IIT-B, and their two children, were quarantined in a separate facility on campus. The woman was cured and discharged