COVID-19: Tibetan Man Dies in Himachal, India’s Toll Rises to 9

Tenjin Chopel was undergoing treatment in the Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College in Kangra district.

Students who recently returned from the Covid-19 hit countries at a quarantine facility, to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, in Srinagar, Sunday, March 22, 2020. 

(Photo: PTI)

Himachal Pradesh on Monday, 23 March, saw its first coronavirus death as a 69-year-old Tibetan man who recently returned from the US died, health officials said.

Tenjin Chopel was undergoing treatment in the state-owned Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College in Tanda town in Kangra district.

Additional Chief Secretary (Health) RD Dhiman said the patient was earlier undergoing treatment in a private hospital. He was hospitalized in the Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College on Monday morning. After his death, his swab samples confirmed that he was Covid-19 positive.

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He reached the Delhi international airport on 15 March. After spending some days in Delhi he reached McLeodganj, the abode of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on 21 March while hiring a cab.

A day after putting the state's most populous Kangra district under lockdown, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday extended the shutdown to the entire state.

However, only essential services will be allowed in the backdrop of spread of two COVID-19 cases in Kangra district. The entire state was placed under lockdown till further orders, Thakur said in the state Assembly, whose ongoing Budget session was curtailed.