Coronavirus: India confirms first death as horror story of virus mismanagement emerges

India has confirmed its first coronavirus death, a 76-year-old man in Karnataka state, and detailed an alarming account of how the man escaped isolation and was admitted to multiple hospitals before he eventually died.

Officials said the man, who has not been named, travelled to Saudi Arabia for a month before returning to India on 29 February. He was asymptomatic on arrival, but started experiencing a cough and fever on 6 March and started being treated in isolation at home.

The health ministry said the man was first admitted to a private hospital in Kalaburgi city on Monday, where a sample was taken and sent for analysis at one of India’s relatively few facilities verified for Covid-19 lab tests.

“Without waiting for the test results, the attendees insisted the patient was discharged against medical advice and they took him to a private hospital in Hyderabad,” the statement said.

A senior state official met with the family “to convince them to admit the patient to… the isolation ward. But the attendees refused to listen to [the official]. They transferred him to Hyderabad without [the official’s] knowledge.”

As the man’s health deteriorated further, the family again discharged him and were on their way to the specialist Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences when he died in transit on Tuesday 10 March. Test results confirming coronavirus infection came back on Thursday, the ministry said.

Officials said contact tracing was underway and “being monitored continuously” by the state government, but the sequence of events will do nothing for confidence in India’s ability to contain a major virus outbreak.

Amid concerns that a lack of testing facilities and the general beleaguered state of health infrastructure could be masking the true scale of the outbreak in the country, India’s confirmed cases count rose to 74 on Friday.

Prime minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Thursday that the government was "fully vigilant" of the coronavirus threat and taking steps to "augment healthcare capacities", without providing details.

New cases include a worker at a private company in Noida, a satellite city bordering India’s sprawling capital Delhi to the east.

Delhi, with six cases, has generally been more proactive than most Indian cities in its outbreak response. Having already announced the closure of all schools and cinemas until at least the end of the month, the city authorities said on Friday that all sports events - including the start of the Indian Premier League cricket season - would be suspended.

India’s central government has, meanwhile, taken drastic measures in a bid to prevent the arrival of any more virus cases from abroad. On Wednesday, it was announced that all tourism to the country would be banned until mid-April, a measure which came into force at noon on Friday. Only diplomats and those on certain work visas will be allowed to enter the country.