Two more succumb to COVID-19 in Himachal, death toll 16

Two COVID-19 patients died in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla and Mandi districts on Monday, pushing the state's case fatalities to 16, officials said.

A 49-year-old man died at Indira Gandhi Medical College here, Shimla Chief Medical Officer Surekha Chopra said. He had been referred from Solan district's Baddi on August 8.

In Mandi, a 70-year-old man of died of COVID-19.

A resident of Jawahar Nagar, he was admitted to Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri Government Medical College with acute respiratory infection on Sunday, CMO Devendra Sharma said.

The 16 deaths include a 70-year-old Delhi woman who had been staying at a guest house in Baddi since March 15. She tested positive and died at PGIMER in Chandigarh on April 2.

The state health department initially recorded the death but it later stopped stating that as per the protocol, her death should be included in Chandigarh where she had tested positive.

The Chandigarh authorities said her death should be included in Himachal Pradesh from where she had been referred.

Himachal Pradesh recorded 81 COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the tally to 3,453.

So far, 2,195 people have recovered, leaving 1,214 active COVID-19 cases, officials said.  Twenty-six patients have migrated out of the state.

Solan has the highest number of active cases in the state at 362, followed by 146 in Mandi, 129 in Chamba, 104 in Kangra, 97 in Sirmaur, 91 in Una, 74 in Bilaspur, 72 in Kullu, 67 in Hamirpur, 65 in Shimla and seven in Kinnaur.