Punjab Police officer succumbs to coronavirus

Chandigarh: Assistant Commissioner of Police (North) Anil Kohli, who was posted in Ludhiana city, on Saturday succumbed to coronavirus, taking the virus toll to 16 in Punjab. The 52-year-old officer was diagnosed positive on April 13.

The officer was on a ventilator in a private hospital in Ludhiana since April 11, Civil Surgeon Rajesh Bagga told media. In a first-of-its-kind clinical use of convalescent plasma therapy in the state, doctors on Saturday decided to try to cure him by using plasma of another cured young volunteer patient. Doctors said he died due to multiple organ failure before the plasma therapy could be administered.

This is the second Covid-19 death in Ludhiana in the past two days and the fifth since the pandemic struck. Three of his close contacts, including his wife, have also tested positive.