COVID-19: 9-year-old girl who died on May 30 tests positive

The sample of a 9-year-old girl who died on May 30 from a blood disorder has tested positive for novel coronavirus in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, an official said on Tuesday. The girl was admitted to Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences in Bilaspur on May 29 as she was suffering from a blood disorder, said Dr Aarti Pandey, the facility's public relations officer.

"However, against medical advice, her parents got her discharged from hospital. Her samples returned positive for coronavirus on June 1. Her parents are migrant workers and had come back from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh to Bilaspur," she said. "When officials contacted her family in Danganiya village, they were told the child had died on May 30 and her last rites had been conducted the next day. Contact tracing has begun in the village and samples of her kin and contacts have been sent for testing," another official said.

The state health department is not treating this as a COVID-19 death as it believes the girl was suffering from severe anemia and other blood disorders and died due to them. PTI TKP BNM BNM